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COPYRIGHT DSPOSa^ 



Pathbreakers and Pioneers 

of the 

Pueblo Region 



Comprising 

A History of Pueblo from the 
Earliest Times 



By 
MILD LEE WHITTAKER 




The Franklin Press Company 
1917 



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Copyright, 1917, 

By 
M. L. Whittakkr 



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FOREWORD. 

To have been permitted to write the story of the 
evolution of the Pueblo region from a barren expanse 
of prairie, teeming with bison and red men, to a mag- 
nificent district containing the metropolis of the south- 
ern Rocky Mountain region, is a rare privilege indeed. 

For the past year the writer has trapped with Kit 
Carson, explored the head waters of the Arkansas with 
Fremont, fought Indians with Chivington, and en- 
gaged in city building with Pueblo pioneers. During 
this time many long forgotton trails have been redis- 
covered and new ones have been blazed. The weariness 
and discomfort of the trail have been more than com- 
pensated for by the pleasing companionship with those 
who travel thereon. 

But after all, this was pioneering by proxy ; it was 
smelling the rose without feeling its thorns. The real 
pathbreaker and pioneer, however, well knew the dif- 
ficulties which infested the trail — of the thorns which 
lay hidden among the flowers, yet, knowing of these 
things, was undaunted by them. Inured to hardships 
and privations, he and his good wife boldly faced the 
grave problem of home-making in this western land 
with a bravery and strength of purpose unequaled in 
the annals of frontier development. 

Much that might have been written about the de- 
velopment of the Pueblo region, and the men instru- 
mental in its development, has been omitted in the 
interests of a greater condensation. It is hoped, how- 
ever, that the story is sufficiently complete to serve as 



a guide to him who would familiarize himself with the 
early history of the Puebly region, as well as with 
those influences which have brought about the evolution 
of the city of Pueblo. 

In that part of the work relating to the growth of 
Pueblo proper, i. e., chapters four and five, the writer 
has made no attempt to show the influence of individual 
pioneers upon the development of the town ; these chap- 
ters are rather a chronology of what transpired than an 
attempt to give credit to individuals who were instru- 
mental in the making of Pueblo. 

It is a pleasant duty to acknowledge the assistance 
and co-operation of those who have so kindly aided in 
the preparation of this work. The writer is especially 
grateful to the following persons and organizations : 

Judge Wilbur F. Stone, ex-Governor Alva Adams, 
Stephen S. Smith, Eugene Weston, Col. I. W. Stanton, 
Col. M. H. Fitch, Supt. J. F. Keating, The Southern Col- 
orado Pioneers* Association, The Pueblo Commerce 
Club, and The Pueblo Chieftain. 

M. L. W. 
Pueblo, Colo., 
January 15, 1917. 



CONTENTS 

Chapter I ... At the Branching of the Trail 
Chapter II . Trappers and Traders of the Valley Region 
Chapter III . . The City on the Boiling Fountain 
Chapter IV . . The Battle With the Wilderness 

Chapter V The Battle Won 

Chapter VI . Indian Adventures in Valley and Plain 
Chapter VII .... The Romance of Railroads 

Chapter VIII Industrial Pueblo 

Chapter IX ... . Public Education in Pueblo 
Chapter X Around the Camp-Fire 



Pathbreakers and Pioneers 
of the Pueblo Region 

CHAPTER I. 

AT THE BRANCHING OF THE TRAIL. 

Were it possible to turn back the wheels of time a 
brief space of sixty years the view presented to us by 
the upper Arkansas would be strange indeed. Where 
now rumbles the locomotive there would be seen the 
wagon train wending its weary way westward to some 
point in Colorado or New Mexico or even to far away 
California. Where now chugs the automobile upon a 
graveled road, then the buffalo and antelope had their 
paths or the Indian his trail. Instead of groves and 
green fields there would be presented to the eye of the 
traveler an endless expanse of prairie, broken only by 
bluffs and arroyos. Here in this garden spot of the 
West the Indian and the bison were in undisputed con- 
trol with only the appearance of an occasional trapper 
or freighter to remind both that their reign in this vast 
western empire was about to be contested. 

It was in this valley that many of the stirring 
events which came to typify western life, were enacted. 
It would be impossible to go back to the time when the 
Arkansas valley was not used as a trail. The first 
introduction to this locality occurred probably in the 
16th century at which time the Spaniards made inter- 
mittent attempts to secure a foothold in this region. 



PATHBREAKEES AND PIONEERS 

It was not until the year 1740, however, that they suc- 
ceeded in establishing anything of a permanent nature 
in the Arkansas valley. During the years 1740-1750 
they maintained a trading post on the Huerfano river, 
not far from its mouth. Ruins of houses, remains of 
irrigation ditches, both of Spanish origin, have been 
found for a distance of thirty or forty miles below 
Pueblo. This seems to indicate that the Spaniards had 
made serious attempts to settle this region. It is ex- 
tremely unlikely, however, that any permanent settle- 
ment could have been maintained here at this early 
date, owing to the exposed condition of this region to 
marauding bands of Indians. 

The French became a source of much trouble to 
the Spaniards in their attempts to control the Arkansas 
valley. Upon at least two occasions Spanish expedi- 
tions were sent out from New Mexico into this region 
to drive out these French invaders. 

In the year 1714, it was reported to the Spanish 
authorities in New Mexico that French settlers from 
the region of the Mississippi had traversed the 
Arkansas, or Napesta, as it was then called, to its 
source. Fearing that attempts would be made by the 
French to secure a foothold in this region an expedition 
of one hundred five Spaniards with thirty warriors of 
one of the Pueblo tribes, set forth from Santa Fe to 
punish these invaders. From a description of their 
route, it is probable that this expedition entered the 
Arkansas valley by way of the Sangre de Cristo Pass. 
This being the case the expedition very likely passed 
over the present site of Pueblo. They continued their 
journey as far north as the present site of Colorado 

Eight 



OF THE PUEBLO REGION 

Springs and may have crossed the divide into the valley 
of the Platte, Although the Spaniards came into con- 
tact with some Apache Indians who bore fresh gunshot 
wounds inflicted by the French, no other trace of them 
could be found. 

Again in the year of 1720 a military force of about 
two hundred men accompanied by 1,200 or 1,300 col- 
onists set out for the north. Although their destination 
has always been in doubt, they probably followed the 
same route taken by the former expedition as far as 
the Arkansas. Turning east their course led down the 
river where they were led into a trap by the Indians, 
the entire body of soldiers and colonists being mas- 
sacred, a priest alone, by the name of Father Juan 
Pino, being allowed to live. 

After this disaster no further attempt was made by 
the Spaniards to keep the French out of this region. 
The French continued their activities in the Arkansas 
valley until their final downfall in America, which 
occurred in the year 1763. 

According to General Amos Stoddard, who repre- 
sented the Government of the United States in the 
transfer of the northern part of the Louisiana Purchase 
to this country, and who, some years later, wrote a 
book entitled "Sketches of Louisiana," some French 
traders came up the Arkansas with a quantity of 
merchandise and erected a trading post not far from 
the base of the Rockies. This occurred before the year 
1762. The Spaniards deeming this an invasion of their 
territory, arrested these traders, seized their goods and 
demanded the punishment of the adventurers. The 
prisoners were eventually liberated and their goods re- 

Nine 



PATHBREAKERS AND PIONEERS 

stored on the ground that the trading post in question 
was within the boundaries of Louisiana. A further 
description of this French trading post indicates that 
it was located on the present site of Pueblo, on the east 
bank of the Fountain river. 

If the assumption is true as to the location of this 
French trading post, Pueblo becomes the location of 
the first building of permanent nature, not only in 
Colorado, but also in the entire Rocky Mountain region 
north of the Spanish settlements in New Mexico. 

Although the Spanish inhabited this region for 
several decades and the French explored it during their 
supremacy on this continent, yet neither of these na- 
tions left any mark of their presence in the way of 
mission or trading post or settlement of any kind. 
With the transfer of this region north of the Arkansas 
to the hands of the Spanish in 1762, the French 
abandoned the Arkansas valley entirely and the Span- 
ish seem to have done nothing in the way of exploring 
it during the thirty-eight years in which its legal title 
rested in that nation. 

In the year 1803, in a manner unprecedented in 
American history, that almost limitless region lying 
between the Mississippi and the crest of the Rockies, 
and north of the Arkansas fell into the hands of the 
United States. Scarcely had the vast domain come 
into our possession than plans were made for sending 
a government expedition into the interior, for purposes 
of exploration. In 1804 Lewis and Clark, both of the 
army, were sent into the Northwest and two years later 
Lieutenant Zebulon M. Pike was sent up the Arkansas. 

This expedition of Pike's, which was to give the 

Ten 



OF THE PUEBLO REGION 

nation the first semi-authentic report of the southern 
part of our new acquisition, left St. Louis on July 11, 
1806. His little command consisting of twenty-three 
men, departed with apparently no intention of remain- 
ing away until the opening of winter, as their clothing 
was wholly inadequate for extended exposure to cold 
weather; but scant preparation had been made for an 
extended journey, even in warm weather. Neither 
had the leader of the party provided himself with such 
geographical data as an explorer could easily have ob- 
tained concerning the region to be explored. But, in 
spite of this, as well as of Pike's inability to chart his 
own route with any degree of accuracy, the report of 
the expedition, inadequate though it was, gave to the 
nation its first real knowledge of the Arkansas valley. 

We are interested for the present only in that part 
of Pike's expedition which took him through the Pueblo 
region. When this little band entered the upper 
Arkansas valley there was not a human habitation 
throughout its entire extent and he encountered no hu- 
man being in this region except the Indian. True he 
came upon traces of Spaniards, but they had been sent 
into the valley for the purpose of preventing Pike from 
exploring this region. It should be remembered that at 
this time, Spain and the United States were at the point 
of war with each other, hence Pike was obliged to move 
with the utmost caution to prevent falling into the 
hands of the military expedition which had been sent 
out to apprehend him. In fact he did finally wander 
into Spanish territory and permit himself to be cap- 
tured by the Spanish authorities. 

Pike crossed what was for the first time designated 

Eleven 



PATHBREAKERS AND PIONEERS 

as "The Great American Desert," and entered Colorado 
by what was later known as the Santa Fe trail. He 
describes his first view of the Rocky Mountains as fol- 
lows : "About two o'clock in the afternoon I thought I 
could distinguish a mountain to our right which ap- 
peared like a small blue cloud; viewed it with a spy- 
glass and was still more confirmed in my conjecture, 
yet only communicated it to Dr. Robinson, who was in 
front of me, but in half an hour they appeared in full 
view before us. When our party arrived on the hill, 
they, with one accord, gave three cheers for the Mexican 
Mountains." 

Thus did Pike, for the first time, look upon that 
massive mountain which was ever afterwards to be 
the monument commemorating to succeeding genera- 
tions the heroism of this courageous man and his band 
of faithful followers who struggled, half clad, through 
snow and ice as they explored the head-waters of the 
Arkansas. 

On November the 21st Pike and his party entered 
the present boundaries of Pueblo County, and camped 
a short distance below the mouth of the Huerfano 
river. At this point he discovered the camp of a body 
of Spanish troops and also the tracks of two men who 
had ascended the river the day before. This discovery 
caused him to take every precaution to prevent being 
surprised and captured. 

Pike's introduction to Pueblo County was anything 
but pleasant. In the vicinity of Avondale he encount- 
ered a band of Pawnee Indians. The adventure is 
described in Pike's own words : "November 22. Marched 
at our usual hour and with rather more caution than 

Twelve 



OF THE PUEBLO REGION 

usual. After having marched about five miles on the 
prairie, we descended into the bottoms, when Barony 
cried out: 'Voila un Savage!' We observed a number 
running from the woods toward us; we advanced to 
them, and on turning my head to the left, I observed 
several running on the hill as it were to surround us, 
one with a stand of colors. This caused a momentary 
halt; but perceiving those in front reaching out their 
hands, without arms, we again advanced ; they met us 
with open arms, crowding around us to touch and 
embrace us. They appeared so anxious I dismounted 
from my horse ; in a moment a fellow had mounted him 
and was off. I then observed that Baroney and the 
doctor were in the same predicament. After some time 
tranquility was so far restored, they having returned 
our horses all safe, as to make us learn they were a 
war party from the Grand Pawnees, who had been in 
search of the Tetans (Comanches) ; but not finding 
them were now on their return. An unsuccessful war 
party on their way home are always ready to embrace 
an opportunity of gratifying their disappointed 
vengeance on the first person whom they met." 

There were about sixty warriors in all, some with 
fire arms and the remainder with bows and arrows. A 
circle was arranged and the pipe was brought forth. 
Pike ordered presents distributed, consisting of knives, 
fire-steels and flints. The Indians demanded kettles, 
blankets and ammunition but were refused by Pike. It 
was some time before the Indians consented to smoke 
the peace-pipe, but according to Pike the party was 
"presented with a kettle of water and drank, smoked 
and ate together." The presents were distributed but 

Thirteen 



PATHBREAKERS AND PIONEERS 

some of the Indians contemptuously threw them away. 
The little band was soon encircled by the Indians who 
began stealing their tomahawks, blankets and other 
articles of value. When the chief was appealed to his 
only reply was that "they were pitiful." Becoming 
desperate, Pike ordered his men to place themselves in 
position to give battle and at the same time informed 
the Indians that he would kill the first one that touched 
his baggage, whereupon the savages filed away, having 
stolen a tomahawk, a broad-axe, five canteens and 
sundry other smaller articles. 

On November 23, 1806, the expedition arrived at 
the present site of Pueblo. The complete entry in 
Pike's diary for this day is as follows : "Marched at 10 
o'clock; at one o'clock came to the third fork, (St. 
Charles) on the south side and encamped at night at 
the point of the grand forks, (confluence of Fountain 
with the Arkansas) . As the river appeared to be divid- 
ing itself into many small branches, and of course must 
be nearing its extreme source, I concluded to put the 
party in a defensible situation and ascend the north 
fork, (Fountain river), to the high point of the blue 
mountain, (Pike's Peak), which we conceived would 
be one day's march; in order to be enabled, from its 
pinacle to lay down the various branches and positions 
of the country. Killed five buffalo." 

The next morning, November 24th, very early in 
the morning. Pike caused fourteen logs to be cut and 
with them erected a breastwork five feet high on three 
sides and the other thrown against the river. The fact 
is worthy of our attention that this crude breastwork 
here on the banks of the Arkansas was the first habita- 

Fourtoen 



OF THE PUEBLO REGION 

tion in the present limits of Colorado to be erected and 
occupied by Americans. No trace of this temporary 
fort has ever been found, but since it was so near the 
bank of the river it is quite probable that the floods of 
summer washed away the logs and obliterated all other 
evidences of it. 

Pike left a part of his command at the fort and 
with two or three others took a little side trip up the 
Fountain river with the intention of scaling Pike's 
Peak. In true tenderfoot style he departed at one 
o'clock in the afternoon intending to camp near the 
base of the peak that evening. Much to his surprise, 
after marching all afternoon and the entire day fol- 
lowing, was he able to camp only at the base of what he 
supposed was the great peak. But again he was de- 
ceived for, after he had spent two days more struggling 
up the mountain side through snow waist deep, and 
going without food or baggage during this entire time, 
he found to his chagrin that he had reached the summit, 
not of the great peak, but of a smaller one, probably 
Cheyenne mountain, and that the summit of Pike's 
Peak appeared some fifteen or sixteen miles away. Pike 
declared that, "It was as high again as what he had 
ascended and it would have taken a whole day's march 
to arrive at its base, when I believe that no human 
being could ascend to its pinnacle. This, with the con- 
dition of my soldiers, who had light overalls on and no 
stockings, and were in every way ill provided to endure 
the inclemency of the region, determined us to return." 
The party arrived back at the camp on the Arkansas 
on the afternoon of November 29, and the next day 

Fifteen 



PATHBREAKERS AND PIONEERS 

abandoned the breastwork, the entire force moving up 
the Arkansas in the midst of a severe snow storm. 

Following Pike's expedition very little is known of 
the Arkansas valley for nearly twenty years when 
Jacob Fowler made his famous journey to the present 
site of Pueblo, an account of which will appear in the 
next chapter. 

Following the report of Pike's expedition the at- 
tention of traders was drawn to the Arkansas valley as 
a possible route to Taos and Santa Fe. In 1812 a party 
of traders composed of twelve men under the leadership 
of Robert McKnight, James Baird and Samuel Cham- 
bers, set out for Santa Fe by way of the Arkansas valley 
and the Sangre de Cristo pass. Again in the year 1815 
August Chouteau and Julius De Munn traversed the 
Arkansas river route to the Spanish settlements by way 
of Taos. Chouteau established a camp at the mouth 
of the Huerfano river near the present town of Boone. 
His party spent the entire winter hunting and trapping 
on the head waters of the Arkansas. After accumulat- 
ing a large quantity of furs and just on the eve of 
Chouteau's departure for St. Louis, the entire party 
was arrested and taken to Santa Fe. 

William Becknell conducted the first successful 
expedition to Santa Fe over what became the Santa Fe 
trail, and to him belongs the honor of being called the 
father of this most famous of western highways. Beck- 
nell left the Missouri river with a company of some 
seventy men for the purpose of "trading for horses 
and mules and catching wild animals of every descrip- 
tion." His route was up the Arkansas to the present 
site of Pueblo and crossing the river near the present 

Sixteen 



OF THE PUEBLO REGION 

Santa Fe Avenue the trail extended south and west 
past the present location of Lake Minnequa in the 
southern edge of the city, and thence in the direction of 
the Greenhorn range. Crossing the range at the 
Sangre de Cristo pass the trail entered the Rio Grande 
valley and led from thence to Taos and Santa Fe. 

It is usually stated in sketches of the Pueblo region, 
that Stephen A. Long visited the present site of Pueblo 
in the year 1819. In fact Long himself believed that 
he was at the point where Pike had erected his log 
fort several years before, but a careful reading of 
Long's diary is conclusive proof that, while he believed 
that he was descending the Fountain river, he was in 
fact descended Turkey creek and was many miles from 
the present site of Pueblo. 

About the year 1823 John McKnight ascended the 
Arkansas and erected a small trading post near the 
present site of Pueblo. The most that is known of 
McKnight is that a short time after his trading post 
was erected he was found dead near it, having been 
slain by a band of Comanche Indians. The Bent 
brothers, Charles, William, Robert and George, of St. 
Louis were the first to make a serious attempt to estab- 
lish themselves permanently for trade in the Arkansas 
valley. Others had traversed this region, hoping to 
reap financial reward by a brief sojourn here but Bent 
brothers were the first to see the advantages of the 
Arkansas valley for purposes of trade. Their keenness 
of discernment forsook them, however, when it came to 
selecting the exact location for a trading post. In 1826 
they built a trading post on Adobe creek in the Hard- 
scrabble region, a few miles above Pueblo. Ceran 

Seventeen 



PATHBREAKERS AND PIONEERS 

St. Vrain, a young man of French parentage, was as- 
sociated with them in this enterprise. Finding that 
they had gone too far west to be in the main line of 
travel, they abandoned their fort in 1828 and estab- 
lished themselves near the mouth of the Las Animas 
river. Again they made the mistake of passing by 
the mouth of the Fountain river which, as subsequent 
events proved, was the only logical location for a trad- 
ing post. 

In 1830 a French trader by the name of Maurice 
Le Doux, erected a trading post above Pueblo, near the 
one abandoned by Bent brothers two years before. Le 
Doux was soon surrounded by a group of Mexicans who 
engaged in farming on the Hardscrabble. Two years 
later two fur traders, Blackwell and Gantt entered this 
region and erected a trading post about six miles below 
the present site of Pueblo on the north bank of the 
Arkansas. How long they remained at this place is not 
known, but the location of their trading post is made 
certain by means of an old government map. 

About this time a few Mexicans settled on the 
Greenhorn and Huerfano rivers, but did not seem to 
prosper in their farming efforts and soon disappeared. 
Bent brothers returned to a point near their former 
post on Adobe creek in 1840, but abandoned it in 1846. 

By the year 1840 the trails of southern Colorado 
had become well established. As has already been 
pointed out, the main trail which connected this region 
with the Mississippi and Missouri river regions, entered 
the present boundaries of Colorado, by way of the 
Arkansas valley, proceeded directly to the mouth of the 
Fountain and from thence extended southwest to Taos 

Eighteen 



OF THE PUEBLO REGION 

and later to Santa Fe, by way of the Sangre de Cristo 
pass and the Rio Grande valley. One important branch 
of this trail extended up the Arkansas to the present 
site of Canon City where it turned northward and 
entered South Park. Another branch of even more im- 
portance extended north from the present site of 
Pueblo up the Fountain river, crossing the divide into 
the region of the Platte river. 

This branching of the trail in three directions at 
the mouth of the Fountain, making easy communication 
with all parts of the Rocky Mountain region, is of 
special significance in studying the causes underlying 
the later development of Pueblo. The courses of these 
trails were in general the same as the courses of the 
railroads in later years. 

Although the Santa Fe trail originally passed 
through the present site of Pueblo, as the trade with 
Santa Fe assumed larger proportions a more direct 
route was demanded. At this time a cut-off was estab- 
lished up the valley of the Las Animas river from Bent's 
fort and across the mountains by way of Raton Pass. 
Another branch was also established, leaving the main 
trail at Fort Larned, Kas., and traversing the valley 
of the Cimmaron river. 

Just when and under what circumstances the old 
Pueblo fort was established is and perhaps always will 
be shrouded in mystery. The most reliable records 
indicate that it was established in 1840 by George Simp- 
son and two associates, Barclay and Doyle, although 
the notorious James Beckwourth, whose veracity is as 
doubtful as his parentage, claims to have established it 
himself in the year 1842. Some writers have confused 

Nineteen 



PATHBREAKERS AND PIONEERS 

Fort Pueblo with Fort El Puebla, situated five miles 
west of Bent's Fort. The annals of this last named 
fort are brief, indeed. It belonged to a company of 
American and Mexican trappers, who, wearied with the 
dull routine life of Bent's Fort had withdrawn and 
established Fort El Puebla. These men were engaged 
in raising grain, vegetables, horses and mules for the 
various trading posts of the Arkansas valley. The 
description of this trading post and its inhabitants 
sounds strangely similar to that of Fort Pueblo proper 
— indeed, so much resemblance exists that it seems a 
fair assumption that the inhabitants of Fort El Puebla 
being located too close to Bent's Fort were obliged to 
change their location and at the close of the year 1839 
or early in 1840 abandoned the site near Bent's Fort in 
favor of the more promising one at the mouth of the 
Fountain* 

Fort Pueblo was located on the west side of what 
is now Union Avenue a short distance south of the 
Santa Fe depot. For many years after Pueblo had de- 
veloped into a city, the foundation of the old fort was 
plainly visible. The fort was inhabited by a more or 
less roving group of trappers, consisting of both Amer- 
icans and Mexicans. A description of this historic 
building has been passed down to us by one who saw it. 
Ruxton, a trader and trapper, who passed through here 
in 1847, gives the following description of it : "It was 
a small square fort of adobe with circular bastions at 
the corners, no part of the walls being more than eight 
feet high, and around the inside of the yard or corral 



*See "History of the Fur Trade in the Far West," by H. M. 
Chittenden, for a complete account of Fort El Puebla. 

Twenty 



OF THE PUEBLO REGION 

are built some half dozen little rooms inhabited by as 
many Indian traders and mountain men. They live 
entirely upon game, and the greater part of the year 
without even bread, since but little maize is cultivated. 
As soon as their supply of meat is exhausted, they start 
to the mountains with two or three pack animals and 
bring them back in two or three days loaded with buf- 
falo and venison. In the immediate vicinity of the fort 
game is scarce, but is found in the mountain valleys, 
particularly in the Bayou Salado," (South Park). 

Fitzpatrick, United States Indian agent, located at 
Bent's Fort, gives the following description of "the Pu- 
eblo": "About seventy-five miles above this place and 
immediately on the Arkansas river, there is a small set- 
tlement the principal part of which is composed of old 
trappers and hunters; the male part of it are mostly 
Americans, Missouri French, Canadians and Mexicans. 
They have a tolerable supply of cattle, horses, mules, 
etc., and I am informed that they raised a good crop of 
wheat, corn, beans, pumpkins and other vegetables. 
They number about one hundred fifty souls, and of this 
number about sixty are men, nearly all have wives and 
some have two * * * The American women are 
Mormons, a party of Mormons having wintered there, 
and on their departure for California, left behind them 
two families. These people are living in two separate 
establishments near each other, one called Pueblo and 
the other Hardscrabble. Both villages are fortified by 
a wall twelve feet high, composed of adobe. These vil- 
lages are becoming the resort of all idlers and loafers. 
They are becoming the depots for the smuggling of 
liquors from New Mexico into this country." 

Twenty-one 



PATHBREAKERS AND PIONEERS 

Fremont visited the Pueblo settlement in July, 
1843, and again in 1848. He described it as a "pueblo," 
composed of "mountaineers who have married Spanish 
women in the Valley of the Taos." In the summer of 
1846 Francis Parkman and Quincy Adams Shaw visited 
Pueblo and gave a somewhat lengthy description of the 
place.* 

The population of the little village rose and fell 
during succeeding years because of the uncertainties 
attending the lives of the inhabitants. On Christmas 
Day of the year 1854 the seventeen occupants were 
massacred by a band of Ute Indians. A full account of 
this massacre will be found in a succeeding chapter. 

It is of interest to note in closing this chapter, that 
of all the attempts to establish trading posts in the 
upper Arkansas, by far the most of them were in the 
Pueblo region, and that those that were not at the con- 
fluence of the Fountain and the Arkansas, merely in- 
dicate an unconscious groping for the strategic spot; 
that spot, as subsequent history proves, was at the 
"branching of the trail." 



♦Oregon Trail, by Francis Parkman, Chapters 20 and 21. 

Twenty-two 



CHAPTER II. 

TRAPPERS AND TRADERS OF THE VALLEY 
REGION. 

The story of the Rocky Mountain trapper and his 
influence upon the destiny of this land beyond the Mis- 
sissippi has never been written, nor has the debt, which 
the nation owes this brave man, ever been fully appreci- 
ated. It is true, as has been pointed out by other 
writers, that these western trappers were in many re- 
spects reduced almost to savagery and that "all the 
romance and most of the poetry (about these trappers) 
are the creation of highly imaginative people who know 
very little about them," but to dismiss the whole subject 
by characterizing them as a class of men who "built 
nothing, founded nothing, and with the exception of a 
trading post here and there, left no trace of anything 
that could lead to the betterment of mankind," and that 
they were "marauders, bent only upon pillage,"* is to 
fail utterly to comprehend or to appreciate the char- 
acter of these trappers or their profound influence upon 
the development of our western frontier. 

These men would surely fail to measure up to our 
standard of morals or to meet our present day require- 
ments in etiquette. They would make a mean appear- 
ance in our social circles of today, but in the 
fundamentals of character — in loyalty, in faithfulness 
to friend, in honesty of heart — these men as a class 
were not wanting. Robbery or theft were of rare oc- 



^See Hall's History of Colorado, Vol. I, Pages 146-47. 

Twenty-three 



PATHBREAKERS AND PIONEERS 

currence; very seldom would they rob even an avowed 
enemy. Wilful murder was very unusual and occurred 
usually as the result of their drunken debauches which 
took place whenever liquor was smuggled in from the 
states by representatives of the great fur companies. 
The fraternity of trappers possessed a code of morals 
which was straightforward and simple. The person 
who violated this code was summarily dealt with. 

It was the trapper and the trader who were the 
real discoverers of the great West, yet posterity has 
erected no monuments to their memory. It was the 
trapper and not the government official who knew the 
geography of the West and to whom appeal had to be 
made when boundary lines were in dispute, yet he was 
never pensioned or his services in any other way recog- 
nized. It was the trapper and hunter who had well- 
nigh taken possession of this western empire before the 
nation had gained a title to it, and a part of which was 
in possession of Mexico, and the remainder in the dis- 
puted possession of Great Britain. It was the trapper 
who led the military expedition through the mountain 
passes to Santa Fe in 1846. When gold was discovered 
in California a continuous highway to that region had 
already been established, not by any government action 
but by the trapper. "Finally, the nation owes a debt 
of gratitude to those resolute pioneers (the trappers), 
who, single handed and alone, stood their ground 
against their British rivals between the Great Lakes 
and the Rocky Mountains. Their valiant bearing pre- 
vented in a large degree those international complica- 

Twenty-four 



OF THE PUEBLO REGION 

tions which so often threatened the peace of the two 
nations along other portions of the frontier."* 

The beginning of western development is so intri- 
cately related to the fur trade as to make any discussion 
of the former impossible without a comprehensive 
review of this industry. In the early part of the nine- 
teenth century practically every stream of any con- 
siderable size, from the Gulf to the Pacific, abounded in 
fur-bearing animals of many varieties, especially the 
beaver, and the woods and prairies were well peopled 
with mink, fox, deer and buffalo. There were three 
common methods of procuring furs. The first and by 
far the most fruitful source was from the Indians. The 
trader had only to resort to the Indian village, laden 
with such cheap trifles as would touch the fancy of the 
Indian. The red man usually placed a very small value 
upon his stock of furs and he could never understand 
why the trader was willing to part with wares of such 
value for articles of such trifling worth as beaver skins. 
The second means of obtaining the much-sought-after 
furs was by means of paid trappers and hunters. These 
men were employed at a fixed salary and their term of 
service was usually for a year or even longer in some 
cases. The third method consisted in purchasing the 
furs from what were known as free trappers and hunt- 
ers, i. e., men who were not connected with any fur 
company but who came and went at will, disposing of 
the product of their efforts, either at a "rendezvous," 
or by taking them to St. Louis, the great fur market 
for the entire West. 



*"The American Fur Trade in the Far West," by H. M. 
Chittenden. 

Twenty-five 



PATHBREAKERS AND PIONEERS 

The lives led by these trappers and hunters affected 
them in a very pronounced way. Their lives of solitude 
were broken only by an occasional meeting with one 
of their kind, and it was not unusual for a trapper to 
go for weeks without seeing a human being. For this 
reason he was gruff in demeanor and of few words. 
His life was in constant peril as he went about his 
daily tasks. He never knew at what moment he might 
be ambushed by some treacherous band of savages. 
His living depended upon his ability in pitting his wit 
against the keen instinct of the beaver, but his life de- 
pended upon his being able to outwit the wily savage. 
All this made of him a bold but silent man. His eye 
was keen, his nerve tense, his mind always alert to any- 
thing that betokened danger. Sometimes a savage would 
follow him for days or even weeks, awaiting an oppor- 
tunity to ambush him. Although many a trapper lost 
his life at the hands of these savages, it more often oc- 
curred that the trapper was more than a match for his 
crafty enemy. 

His life of physical hardship influenced his appear- 
ance in a marked degree. He was gaunt and brown, 
with matted hair, and skin as dark as the savage. His 
brow was deeply furrowed and his countenance bore 
evidence of the life of danger and exposure to which 
he was subjected. Largely through necessity, the trap- 
per adopted the garb of the Indian. He soon found that 
the costume of civilization was useless in his rough life 
in the wilderness. 

The presence of the Indian caused the fur industry 
to take on a character that it would never otherwise 
have assumed. Had it not been for the presence of 

Twenty-six 



OF THE PUEBLO REGION 

these savages no permanent forts or posts would have 
been erected in the West, but all furs would have been 
collected and transported at once to the fur market. 
The enmity of the savage caused trappers to move in 
groups, thus establishing definite trails. To more ef- 
fectively protect themselves against their enemies, the 
trappers were obliged to give a more careful and pains- 
taking scrutiny to the country surrounding them. Thus 
it will be observed that the enmity existing between the 
trappers and the aborigines, while it resulted in the 
loss of many lives, was nevertheless a definite influence 
in the development of the West. 

It was around the trading post that much of the 
so-called romance of early western life had its center. 
But as has already been intimated, the romance of the 
trapper's life existed largely in the imagination of 
those who knew very little about him. The two most 
famous rendezvous of the Arkansas valley were Bent's 
old fort and Fort Pueblo. Here, at the close of the 
season, came hunters and trappers laden with skins 
and furs, the result of many months of arduous toil ; to 
these places came the Indians also, with the results of 
their season's labor, while waiting to meet them was 
the trader with an adequate supply of currency and 
supplies for the white trappers and plenty of trinkets, 
consisting largely of beads and vermilion, for the In- 
dians. A liberal supply of liquor was always on hand 
in spite of a prohibitory law against its importation 
into Indian territory. If we add to this assemblage 
another person who, although not a necessary part of 
the group, was nevertheless an important actor in the 
scene about to be described, our cast is complete. Re- 

Twenty-seven 



PATHBREAKERS AND PIONEERS 

member that these trappers and hunters have been in 
seclusion for the greater part of a year and have been 
separated from such luxuries as gambling and liquor, 
also that they have in their possession from $1,000 to 
$5,000 in money or its equivalent; one can now see 
that an ordinary police reporter, and not a poet, would 
be required to describe the scene which would usually 
be enacted. After the furs had been sold and accounts 
settled, the gambling and drinking began and for a 
period of many days, in fact as long as money and 
liquor lasted, debauchery and drunkenness ensued. 
After the trapper had squandered all of his possessions 
he shouldered his pack and once more turned his face 
toward the hills for another year's work, having saved 
barely enough to purchase a small quantity of sugar, 
tobacco and a supply of powder and bullets. Often 
rifles, saddles, horses and even clothing were staked 
and the trapper returned to his work, in debt for the 
very outfit in his possession. Year after year these men 
returned penniless to the hills to earn a few more dol- 
lars by trapping a few more beaver, only to squander 
it all, sometimes in a few hours, but at best in a few 
days, at the trading post. Yet in what way did they 
differ from many other men of their time? Only that 
their "sprees" were more extravagant and prolonged 
because they occurred with less frequency, their pay 
day occurring yearly instead of weekly or monthly. 

It should not be understood that all trappers in- 
dulged in such excesses as have just been described. 
While it is probably true that such was the general 
rule there were many notable exceptions. The annals 
of the hunters and trappers contain the names of many 

Twenty-eight 



OF THE PUEBLO REGION 

who were temperate in their habits, and who died leav- 
ing fortunes of considerable size which they had ac- 
cumulated in their occupation. 

An entire volume might easily be devoted to the 
stories of the lives of these hunters and trappers, and 
the adventures in which they were engaged. The fore- 
most among these was the far-famed Kit Carson, 
trapper, hunter, Indian fighter, scout and, above all, 
a true western gentleman. Kit, as a lad of sixteen, had 
been bound out to a Missouri saddlemaker, but in the 
year 1826, as a party of traders was passing the home 
of his master, he decided to run away. Although but 
sixteen, his restless spirit impelled him to leave the 
humdrum of existence in the shop and seek a more ex- 
citing life in the West. Accordingly he joined the party 
of traders which was bound for Santa Fe. The follow- 
ing notice appeared in the Missouri Intelligencer 
immediately following the boy's disappearance : 

"Notice: To whom it may concern: That Chris- 
topher Carson, a boy about sixteen years old, small of 
his age, but thick set, light hair, ran away from the 
subscriber, living at Franklin, Howard County, Mo., 
to whom he had been bound to learn the saddler's trade, 
on or about the first day of September last. He is sup- 
posed to have made his way to the upper part of the 
state. All persons are notified not to harbor, support 
or subsist said boy under penalty of the law. One cent 
reward will be given to any person who will bring back 
the said boy. 
" (Signed) DAVID WORKMAN, 

"Franklin, Oct. 6, 1826." 

Twenty-nine 



PATHBREAKERS AND PIONEERS 

This was the beginning of a long career in the 
West, for he never saw his home again and did not even 
return to his native state for sixteen years. With the 
restless energy of his young manhood he traversed 
every section of the great West ; we see him now hunt- 
ing in New Mexico; again we get a glimpse of him 
trapping in the Grand Canyon of the Colorado; he is 
next heard of in California with Captain Ewing and a 
party of American trappers, operating on Spanish soil 
without a license, barely saving the trappers from ar- 
rest by his prompt action in getting them under way 
and out of the forbidden territory before the authorities 
could apprehend them. Soon after this adventure we 
hear of him in the employ of the newly organized 
Rocky Mountain Fur Company, a deadly rival of that 
better known organization. The American Fur Com- 
pany. 

Carson engaged himself to this new company, not 
as a hired trapper, but by merely agreeing to sell his 
furs to it. His party left Taos in the fall of 1830 and 
passed over the usual trail of the trapper to Bent's 
Fort, and from there up the Arkansas to the Fountain, 
and from thence north to the Ute pass. The party 
very likely passed through this vicinity by easy stages, 
trapping as they went, as beaver abounded both in the 
Fountain and the Arkansas at that time. Again we 
hear of this intrepid trapper, at the age of twenty-one, 
in the great Northwest, trapping on the Snake river 
in the region occupied by the dreaded Blackfeet In- 
dians. Once more, unable to curb his restless spirit, he 
severed his connection with the Rocky Mountain Fur 
Company and joined a party bound for Taos. They 

Thirty 



OF THE PUEBLO REGION 

pushed directly south from the Laramie plains to South 
Park, over one of the most rugged regions of the entire 
range, and entered the Arkansas valley at the present 
site of Canon City. Passing down the river the party 
went into winter quarters not far from the present site 
of Pueblo. It was at this place that an adventure with 
the Crow Indians took place, an account of which ap- 
pears in Chapter VI. 

In 1842 he engaged as guide to Fremont, upon 
the latter's first expedition into this western region. 
Again in the following year he met Fremont at the old 
Pueblo fort, at which time he rendered an important 
service to the noted explorer. Fremont had started 
south from Fort St. Vrain, his destination being Taos 
and his purpose being to purchase horses and mules for 
his expedition. Upon his arrival at Pueblo, Fremont 
found that all trade with New Mexico had been for- 
bidden. Fortunately he met Kit Carson at this place 
and prevailed on him to go to Bent's Fort and endeavor 
to procure the needed animals for him. Carson 
rendered the service requested of him by Fremont, 
meeting the explorer at St. Vrain's fort with the horses 
and mules which he had succeeded in procuring at 
Bent's fort. 

In 1846 we find Carson once more in the far west ; 
this time he is a member of that famous military force 
under Fremont, taking part in that important expedi- 
tion which made California a part of America. 

Once, as Kit Carson was traveling the Taos trail, 
an incident occurred which illustrates not only the 
alertness of this famous hunter, but also indicates, in a 
measure, his mercy to his enemies : Carson and four as- 

Thirty-one 



PATHBREAKERS AND PIONEERS 

sociates were taking a number of horses from Santa Fe 
to Taos and had just entered the Kiowa country, when 
several warriors of that tribe rode into their camp. 
Carson had been away from that vicinity so long that 
the younger generation of savages did not recognize 
him, or it is highly improbable that they would have 
hazarded an attack of the kind which they had planned. 
Carson, understanding their language, soon learned 
that they intended to fall suddenly upon the party and 
murder them; the signal for the attack was to be the 
passing of the peace-pipe for the third time. Carson 
immediately apprised the other members of his party of 
the murderous intentions of the Indians and instructed 
each one to be ready to shoot the moment he gave the 
signal. 

The circle was formed and the peace-pipe was 
passed according to the usual custom; just as it was 
started for the third time around the circle the Indians 
suddenly threw off their blankets and brandished their 
weapons, but Carson and his men were too quick for 
them for, as the Indians sprang to their feet, they 
found themselves facing the rifles of those whom they 
had planned to kill. Carson addressed them in the 
following words: "You red dogs! You thought you 
could murder us; do you know who I am? I am Kit 
Carson ! Take a good look at me before you die." The 
Indians dropped their bows in astonishment. "Go," 
said Carson to them as they slunk away, "go and tell 
your cowardly tribe that you have looked upon Kit 
Carson and he let you live. Take your bows and arrows 
with you, for you might have to protect yourselves 
against the rabbits on your way home." 

Thirty-two 



OF THE PUEBLO REGION 

Kit Carson's long and eventful life came to an end 
at Fort Lyon, near Las Animas, Colorado, in 1868. 
Scarcely an event occurred from 1830 to the time of 
his death, the influence of which made for the develop- 
ment of this western region, that did not bear the im- 
print of his hand. As guide to government expedition, 
as soldier in the Mexican and Civil wars, as Indian 
agent and as pathfinder and scout in the trackless West, 
his service to his country was of the highest order. 
We record with pride the fact that Pueblo and vicinity 
was the scene of some of the most interesting and 
thrilling experiences of this illustrious man. 

One of the most picturesque of these western trap- 
pers was Jacob Fowler, to whom reference has already 
been made. An account of his journey up the Arkansas 
is given here, not because of any vital influence exerted 
by him upon the region which he traversed, but because 
the record of this expedition gives us one of the earliest, 
as well as one of the most accurate views of the Pueblo 
region. 

Jacob Fowler and a company of trappers, of whom 
Colonel Glenn was the leader, set out from Fort Smith, 
Arkansas, "thorsday, 6th September, 1821," according 
to the diary kept by Fowler. His was the first party to 
traverse the Arkansas river from that point to the 
Pueblo region, and was among the first to traverse the 
trail from Pueblo to Taos by way of the Sangre de 
Cristo pass. 

Fowler kept a very careful diary in which he re- 
corded the daily events of the expedition. His spelling 
and punctuation are a wonder to behold — totally unlike 
anything on the earth or in the sky or in the waters 

Thirty-three 



PATHBREAKERS AND PIONEERS 

under the earth, so far as is known. Bits of this diary 
will be inserted from time to time as the account of this 
interesting journey is presented. 

This party had no sooner entered the Colorado 
region than a serious accident befell them, which re- 
sulted in the loss of one of their members. It was while 
passing a point near the mouth of the Purgatoire river 
that one of their men was attacked by a bear, and, be- 
fore assistance could be rendered, was so badly injured 
that he died. The unfortunate man was buried on the 
banks of the Arkansas, near the place where he met 
his death. 

The remainder of the party continued up the valley 
and camped near the mouth of the Huerfano river. 
Here they were joined by a large band of Kiowa In- 
dians, from whom Fowler endeavored to procure some 
additional horses. At this point of his diary appears 
the very improbable statement that these Kiowas, to- 
gether with a band of Arapahoes, who had joined them 
here, had in their possession about 20,000 horses. Al- 
though these Kiowas were almost destitute of anything 
else, the trappers experienced the greatest difficulty in 
persuading them to part with a few of their horses. 

On reaching the mouth of the St. Charles, about 
seven miles below Pueblo, the party came upon a band 
of about sixty Spaniards, who had come into this region 
to trade with the Indians. Fowler tried to purchase 
some corn from them, but found the price, ten dollars a 
bushel, prohibitive. 

The following interesting paragraph from the 
diary gives a glimpse of an interesting New Year's 
incident of the camp : 

Thirty-four 



OF THE PUEBLO REGION 

"Jan. 1, 1822. this being a holaday With our 
nibours We lay by all day — Haveing about two pounds 
of bacon Which I Head kept as a Reserve I Here Shewed 
it to the Indeans — the Cheaf asked What kind of anemel 
maid that meat When He was told a Hog He Requested 
the shape of it to be maid on the Sand When that was 
(done) all the Indeans said the(y) Head never seen 
Such an animal and appeared to Wonder and think it 
Strange that the(y) Head never Seen the like soposing 
them Selves to Have seen all kinds of Anemels — " 

Fowler observed that the location of his camp here 
on the St. Charles was somewhat dangerous, as they 
were in the heart of the Indian country and directly in 
the path of war parties against other tribes, as well as 
against the Spaniards, with whom the Indians seemed 
to be at war. In order to more effectually defend them- 
selves against the depredations of these war parties, 
they erected at the mouth of the St. Charles, a "hors 
pen" and "a Hous with two pens four logs High — Which 
maid part of the Horse pen Which Was so Strong that 
a few Indeans cold not take the Horses out With out 
Choping Some of the logs." Fearing that some attempt 
might be made by the Spanish authorities to take them 
prisoners, Fowler decided, after making a thorough 
reconnoisance of the surrounding country, to remove 
his camp to a more defensible location. He selected a 
site at the mouth of the Fountain river, not far from 
the spot where the old brewery building now stands. 
The camp had no sooner been removed to this place than 
a war party of Crows passing by, stopped, and under 
the guise of friendship, began stealing anything they 
could lay hands upon. Their experience was similar to 

Thirty-five 



PATHBREAKERS AND PIONEERS 

that of Pike's party a few years before. Fowler 
showed a more militant spirit, however, than Pike did 
under similar circumstances, for we read, "on fellow 
came into my tent threw down his old Roab and took a 
new one — I took it from him and toled him to take his 
own — and on his takeing it he took my Saddle Bagg al 
so — I took it from Him and Pushed him out of the 
Tent." One fellow, coming back, "Presented his gun 
at Simpson — on which We were All ready for Battle 
In an Instent"? The Indians made no further attempt 
to intimidate the party, and soon filed away, but not 
without stealing a few small articles, such as blankets, 
knives and shot-pouches. 

Immediately after this episode the trappers began 
erecting a house. This house contained three rooms, 
with but one outside door, and was built so near the 
horse pen that it would be impossible for the Indians 
to take horses out of the pen without the knowledge 
of the owners. This house was built, "seven logs high 
and well chinked." Fearing that the Indians would 
return that night and drive off their horses, of which 
they had thirty-eight, they chopped down trees, letting 
them fall across the gate to the pen. The Crows gave 
them no further trouble at this time, but on their return 
trip the same scene was enacted as before. 

It should be noted that this little house, erected by 
Fowler's party, was the first permanent building 
erected on the present site of Pueblo, of which we have 
any definite record. This building was probably near 
the foot of "sugar loaf" hill, the summit of which 
Fowler used as a lookout to prevent being surprised by 
the "Indeans." The party remained here until January 

Thirty-six 



OF THE PUEBLO REGION 

30, when they broke camp, abandoned the little cabin 
and took up their march toward the Greenhorn moun- 
tains. 

These two sketches represent two extreme types 
of hunter and trapper. Carson was one of the class 
whose love of the wilderness life far outweighed his 
desire to gain financially from the profits of his labor. 
He took far greater delight in leading an expedition 
safely through the enemy's country or in playing the 
gallant in a spectacular rescue of a friend from danger, 
than he did in all the beaver skins he was able to ac- 
cumulate, yet he was a successful trapper. Fowler was 
of the prosaic type, whose only love for the wilderness 
consisted in a desire to exploit its products — the beaver 
and buffalo, and whose forward trail always lay where 
furs were most abundant and whose back trail was a 
straight one ending at the fur market. 

Two factors, the influence of which seemed to begin 
simultaneously, spelled the doom of the fur trade. One 
was the growing use of the silk hat, which began to 
supersede the beaver hat, and the other was the gradual 
disappearance of the beaver from western streams, as 
no attempt was ever made to conserve this vast resource 
of the wilderness. As early as 1832, John Jacob Astor 
prophesied the destruction of the beaver fur industry 
because of the growing use of the silk hat. Two years 
later Sillman's Journal stated as follows: "It appears 
that henceforth the fur trade must decline. The ad- 
vanced state of geographical science shows that no new 
countries remain to be explored. In North America 
the animals are slowly decreasing, from the persevering 
efforts and the indiscriminate slaughter practiced by 

Thirty-seven 



PATHBREAKERS AND PIONEERS 

hunters, and by the appropriation to the use of man of 
those forests and rivers which have afforded them food 
and protection. They recede with the aborigines, be- 
fore the tide of civilization; but a diminished supply 
will remain in the mountains and uncultivated tracts 
of this, and other countries, if the avidity of the hunter 
can be restrained within proper limitations."* 

With the receding of the aborigines and the beaver, 
began the disappearance of that most picturesque of 
westerner — the trapper. His tribe is now extinct and 
his sturdy deeds and sterling character remain alive 
only as a fond memory of the days that have gone by. 
While few monuments have been erected to the memory 
of these heroic men, yet posterity has given them more 
fitting monuments than any that could be erected by 
man, in naming, in their memory, nature's landmarks, 
her rivers and mountain peaks — the most fitting monu- 
ments that could be erected to the memory of nature's 
noblemen. 



*Sabin's "Kit Carson Days.' 

Thirty-eight 



CHAPTER III. 

THE CITY ON THE BOILING FOUNTAIN. 

The search for gold exerted a greater influence 
upon the early map-making of America than any other 
activity in which the early inhabitants ever engaged. 
The existence of the Spanish power in Mexico, the 
English in Virginia, the organization of the great state 
of California and its segregation from the slave hold- 
ing interests, all were the direct results of the quest for 
gold. The political map has been influenced more pro- 
foundly, however, by the search for gold than by its 
discovery. 

It is to a group of gold seekers that the present 
City of Pueblo owes its origin. It came about in the 
following manner: In 1849 a band of Cherokee In- 
dians, living at that time in Georgia, hearing of the 
gold strike in California, decided to visit that region 
and prospect for gold. Not finding things to their lik- 
ing they returned. On this westward expedition they 
passed through the Cherry creek region and discovered 
strong indications of the presence of placer deposits. 
Some of their band desired to stop there and make a 
careful investigation. These Cherokees never forgot 
this location and in the year 1858, being located then 
in Southern Kansas, they determined to visit it again 
and make careful investigation as to the source of these 
placer deposits. Word was sent to some of their 
friends, living in Georgia, inviting them to accompany 
the expedition. 

Thirty-nine 



PATHBREAKERS AND PIONEERS 

In this way, Green Russell, a restless citizen of the 
South, learned of this proposed expedition and asked 
permission to join it with a group of his comrades. The 
request being granted, Russell and his party joined 
the Cherokee expedition, overtaking it forty miles 
west of Pawnee Forks in Kansas. The Indians were 
led by one of their number, George Hicks by name, an 
Indian of remarkable character. Accompanying this 
expedition was a Philander Simons, who is responsible 
for the details of this account. Green Russell was not 
the leader of the party, as has so often been stated, but 
occupied a subsidiary position under Hicks. 

The party wended its way up the Arkansas river 
past Bent's fort and to a point near the mouth of the 
St. Charles river, but at this point the course was 
northwest, traversing what from that time became 
known as the Cherokee cut-off which connected with 
the Fountain river some ten miles north of Pueblo. 

Immediately upon their arrival at Cherry Creek 
these prospectors, whites and Indians alike, began 
washing for gold. After three days work with but a 
small quantity of gold to show for their labors, a cloud 
of gloom settled over the camp. The Indians, being 
averse by nature to hard work, soon abandoned the 
purpose which had led them there and began hunting 
antelope and deer on the present site of Denver. The 
white members of the party soon scattered in various 
directions and continued their search for gold. Being 
unable to locate the source of the placer deposits, most 
of these prospectors drifted back to the states, Russell 
remaining, however, throughout the year, "keeping up 

Forty 




S. S. SMITH. 

Southern Colorado's Oldest Pioneer. Arrived at pi-esent site of Pueblo. 

April. 1859. 



OF THE PUEBLO REGION 

the excitement by reporting great discoveries and big 
strikes, which were never made." 

The unprecedented discoveries of gold in Califor- 
nia had prepared the minds of the people for belief in 
the most fantastic tales of newly found wealth, hence 
the stories of Green Russell spread abroad in the Mis- 
souri river region, to the effect that a rich strike had 
been made and that this field could be reached without 
the dreaded journey across the mountains and the Great 
Basin, electrified the entire country. During this same 
year six quills of gold were exhibited in Omaha, which 
tended to confirm these stories, and in a short time the 
migration to the Pike's Peak region had begun. 

Our interest centers in a certain party which left 
St. Louis in the summer of 1858, bound for the gold 
fields of the Rockies. This party was composed of 
Josiah F. Smith, Otto Winneka, Frank Doris and 
George Lebaum. These men took the Santa Fe trail 
route and followed the Arkansas to the mouth of the 
Fountain river, at which place the trail forked, one 
branch extending south over Sangre de Cristo pass and 
the other extending up the Fountain and across the 
divide to Cherry creek. These men arrived at a point 
on the Fountain river, near its confluence with the 
Arkansas, on the 15th of September and finding it a 
pleasant location with plenty of grass and firewood, 
decided to halt for a time and rest their animals. Here 
they were joined by Captain Wm. H. Green, Wm. 
Kroenig, Charles and George Peck, Robert Middleton, 
J. D. Miller, Stephen S. Smith and a few others. 

Finding that there was grave doubt as to the 
authenticity of the reports from Cherry creek, and 

Forty-one 



PATHBREAKERS AND PIONEERS 

fearing that they would not reach that region in time 
to make adequate preparation for winter, the party 
decided to pass the winter on the banks of the Fountain. 

Strange as it may seem, by the time spring arrived 
the little band had lost all desire to move on, the gold 
fever having in a great measure subsided. About thirty 
cabins had been erected of logs and adobe. Two Mis- 
sourians, named Cooper and Wing, came and opened 
a store while two engineers, named Shaffer and Brown, 
who arrived at the same time, were employed to survey 
the site of the new town which it had been agreed to 
establish. The site was duly surveyed and platted by 
these gentlemen, and the name Fountain City was given 
it. The town was situated just east of the Fountain 
river, the main street running east and west near what 
is now known as Damson street. Eighty lodges of 
Arapahoe Indians were camped near by during the 
winter and carried on a trade in furs, skins, etc. 

The two years, 1858 and 1859, gave birth to a nota- 
ble group of towns in the Pike's Peak region, namely, 
Denver, Boulder, Idaho Springs, Golden, Nevada City, 
Central City, El Paso — later called Colorado City — and 
Fountain City, which was soon to give place to Pueblo. 
The Pike's Peak region was roughly bounded by the 
Arkansas river on the south and extended as far north 
as any one cared to extend his prospecting endeavors, 
which was seldom beyond Clear creek, but in some in- 
stances as far north as the head waters of the Cache la 
Poudre. 

The river, upon which the new town was situated, 
had been known from the earliest times by the French 
and Spanish, and later by trappers and traders, as the 

Forty-two 



OF THE PUEBLO REGION 

Fontaine qui Bouille, or the Boiling Fountain, its name 
being derived from the carbonated waters which issue 
from its source at the present town of Manitou. 

The region at the mouth of the Fountain river had 
been long known to the Indians and Mexicans as highly 
suited for agricultural pursuits. The inhabitants of 
the old Pueblo fort had carried on farming operations 
at this place and had, according to reports, succeeded in 
raising a considerable supply of corn, Mexican beans, 
pumpkins, etc. It is not surprising, therefore, that the 
founders of Fountain City were attracted by the prom- 
ise of rich returns from this little valley and that they 
chose to remain here and engage in agricultural pur- 
suits, rather than to engage in that more hazardous 
occupation of gold-seeking. 

In the spring an old irrigation ditch, which had 
been formerly used by the Mexicans, was repaired and 
a small tract of land in the immediate vicinity of the 
settlement was placed under irrigation. This ditch was 
taken out of the Fountain near what is now East 12th 
street and extended south almost to the present site of 
the old brewery. Later it rounded the point and fur- 
nished water for the Goldsmith ranch. 

A large acreage of vegetables and some corn were 
planted, which experiment proved a real "bonanza" 
to these erstwhile prospectors. The season in the 
Arkansas valley being about two weeks earlier than in 
Denver, gave these newly-arrived agriculturists of 
Fountain City a very decided advantage over the farm- 
ers of the Cherry creek region. The products of their 
gardens were hauled to Denver where they arrived 
ahead of similar products in that locality and fabulous 

Forty-three 



PATHBREAKERS AND PIONEERS 

prices were received. Much of their produce, however, 
was sold to gold-seekers passing through the town on 
their way to Denver. 

It is singular that these men were contented to 
remain here on the banks of the Fountain when there 
was a constant stream of humanity passing by, bound 
for Denver. The explanation offered by one of the 
founders of Fountain City to the writer may help to a 
better understanding of their action. "It was so easy 
to live in those days," said he, "that there was no desire 
on our part to push on. Buffalo, venison and fish were 
so plentiful that very little effort was required to pro- 
cure meat; corn and vegetables were raised with ease, 
and as for clothing, there were plenty of canvas sacks 
to be had, which, with a little ingenuity, could be 
fashioned into crude clothing. Our land and houses 
cost us nothing and our living being assured, we were 
not anxious to leave this place for the hurly-burly of 
a mining camp." 

These men were not at all times immune to the 
gold-fever, however, for in the spring of 1860 when 
the secret of the great strike in California Gulch, now 
Leadville, was disclosed, the temptation was too strong 
for these farmers to resist and a grand exodus from 
Fountain City took place. But the announcement of 
the discovery of fabulous wealth at that place was pre- 
mature by a period of seventeen years, hence these 
Fountainites along with about 6,000 others silently 
withdrew, wiser but not wealthier. Most of those who 
left Fountain City at this time returned in the fall. 

It is difficult to form any adequate conception of 
the seething mass of humanity that started pell-mell 

Forty-four 



OF THE PUEBLO REGION 

across the plains when the Pike's Peak excitement was 
at high tide. During the summer of 1860 there oc- 
curred one of the largest migrations that ever took 
place in the history of the country. During the month 
of May it was estimated that there were 11,000 wagons 
on their way to the gold regions of Colorado, vast num- 
bers of which moved by way of the Santa Fe trail and 
the Fountain river. 

The soil upon which Fountain City was located 
was a part of Kansas Territory, but the people of the 
entire Pike's Peak region soon began to take steps look- 
ing toward a more effective government than could be 
given them from the almost unorganized territory of 
Kansas. These hardy pioneers, led by a small group 
of men in Denver, decided that a new territory should 
be organized embracing this new region. Accordingly, 
in the fall of 1859, even before there was any assur- 
ance that there was anything in this region to support 
a permanent population, and when there were not more 
than two thousand people in the entire Pike's Peak 
region, an election was held to form a provisional gov- 
ernment and to select a set of officers for the new Ter- 
ritory of Jefferson. It is stated by an early writer 
that so enthusiastic did the citizens of Fountain City 
become over the possibility of "home government," that 
although there were but twenty-five legal voters in the 
town, when the ballot box was opened there were 1,500 
ballots cast, all for one set of candidates. 

Much as the citizens of the Pike's Peak region de- 
sired to form a government of their own, it was not 
until 1861 that Congress gave heed to their importuni- 

Forty-five 



PATHBREAKERS AND PIONEERS 

ties and authorized the organization of the Territory 
of Colorado. 

These people, soon numbering high in the thou- 
sands, would have been left practically without a gov- 
ernment, had not that ancient Anglo-Saxon instinct for 
self-government asserted itself. It was not possible 
for these hardy pioneers to await the slow action of the 
federal government to provide a code and a set of duly 
appointed officers, but with the true colonial spirit in- 
herited from their pre-Revolutionary ancestry, these 
men stood ready to substitute what was lacking in the 
general code. People's courts sprang up in every lo- 
cality, meting out stern justice to law breakers and 
effectively safeguarding the rights of society. It is 
true, that in some instances the hand of lawlessness 
held sway for a short time, but eventually law and order 
prevailed. Probably no other people on the face of the 
globe could have met under similar circumstances and 
have established law and order so effectively and with 
such apparent ease as did these resolute frontiersmen. 

The stern purpose of these men is indicated in the 
following extract from the constitution of a nearby 
town, organized in 1860 : 

"Whereas, it sometimes becomes necessary for 
persons to associate themselves together for the pur- 
pose of such as the protection of life and property ; and 
as we have left the peaceful shades of civilization — 
left friends and homes for the purpose of bettering our 
own condition, we therefore associate ourselves to- 
gether under the name of the 'Arkansas Valley Claim 
Club' and adopt the following constitution." 

The serious determination of these men would 

Forty-six 



OF THE PUEBLO REGION 

brook no interference in their endeavor to establish 
such institutions here in the west as would guarantee 
them the same happiness as had been theirs to enjoy 
before leaving "the peaceful shades of civilization." 
Their emergency courts were not harassed by the 
technicalities of our modern courts of justice and from 
their decisions there was no appeal. 

The principle which governed these men of the 
Pike's Peak region, and which was the basis of action 
of the Oregon pioneers and the California gold seekers, 
was set forth by W. N. Byers in one of the earliest 
numbers of the Rocky Mountain News : "We claim that 
any body or community of American citizens, which 
from any cause or under any circumstances is cut off 
from, or from isolation is so situated as not to be under 
any active and protecting branch of the central govern- 
ment, have a right, if on American soil, to frame a 
government, and enact such laws and regulations as 
may be necessary for their own safety, protection and 
happiness, always with the consideration precedent, 
that they shall at the earliest moment when the central 
government shall extend an effective organization and 
laws over them, give it their unqualified support and 
obedience." 

No clearer or more logical statement of the rights 
of the people to inaugurate democratic governments 
could be made, than that quoted above. 

Fountain City is described by Stephen S. Smith, 
one of its founders, as consisting of a group of houses 
composed mostly of adobe, situated on one single street 
extending directly west from the base of what is now 
known as "Sugar Loaf" hill, which was the "washed 

Forty-seven 



PATHBREAKERS AND PIONEERS 

rock" of Fowler's description. This historic landmark 
known as "Sugar Loaf," deserves to be better known to 
Pueblo citizens than it is. It was probably very much 
higher almost a century ago when Jacob Fowler camped 
at its base, as its formation indicates that it is under- 
going rapid erosion. Fowler often used it as a lookout 
post to guard his camp against attacks by the Indians. 
He suggested that the table land nearby would be an 
excellent location for a fort. The residents of Fountain 
City used this rock for an entirely different purpose, 
according to Mr. Smith. A board would often times be 
hung on the west face of its summit as a target and 
the idlers on the streets would try their skill with long- 
range rifles, often shooting from as far west as the 
banks of the Fountain. Mr. Smith assured the writer 
that there were not a few among their number who 
could "hit the bulls eye at 400 yards." 

Fountain City, the "oasis of the desert," refused 
to grow ; with the opening of 1860 its population began 
to dwindle, and although a few of its original inhab- 
itants lingered on for several years, the town was 
doomed to an early death and in a few years it existed 
as a mere memory in the minds of Pueblo citizens, the 
constantly overflowing of the Fountain river having 
obliterated the last vestige of this "City on the Boiling 
Fountain." 



Forty-eight 




PUEBLO, COLORADO, IN 1867, LOOKING NORTHWEST FROM A POINT 
ON TERDERFOOT HILL NEARLY OPPOSITE THIRD STREET. 

The first street was Santa Fe Avenue, the cross street Fourth Street. 



The following are indicated by figures on the picture: 

1. In this building Kastor and Bei-ry had started a store, but at the time 
this picture was taken they had moved to the building marked (14). Several 
persons kept stores here, among whom were Cal. P. Peabody and Jake Wilde- 
boor. 2. James Rice's store for sale of cigars and small articles. 3. Hiney 
House or "Planters Hotel." 4. Pueblo Flour Mills, completed in 1866 by 
O. H. P. Baxter and Thatcher Brothers on the ground now occupied by the 
Federal Building, southwest corner of Fifth and Main Streets. The mill ditch 
can be seen to the right. 5. O. H. P. Baxter's house, southeast corner Fifth 
and Main Streets. 6. House of "Governor" G. A. Hinsdale. 7. J. E. Smith's 
house. 8. J. D. Miller's house. 9. Law office of H. C. Thatcher and A. A. 
Bradford. 10. Thatcher Brothers' warehouse, northeast corner Fourth and 
Santa Fe, where Pueblo Hardware Company now is. 11. Thatcher Brothers' 
store, on the southeast corner of Fourth Street and Santa Fe Avenue. 12. W. D. 
Burt's restaurant. 13. Dr. P. R. Thombs' Drug Store. 14. Kastor and Berry's 
store, see (1) above. 15. Thomas Waggerman's store. 16. Log house of a 
gambler, F. Y. Howe. 17. Dr. J. W. O. Snyder's book and shoe store. 18. Na- 
tional House. 19. Lampkin's Livei-y Stable. 20. This lot at the southwest 
corner of Fourth Street and Santa Fe Avenue was covered in 1870 by a two- 
story brick building, which included two store rooms, that in the corner being 
occupied by the First National Bank, established in 1871 by Thatcher Brothers, 
the adjoining room by James Rice's store. The United States Land Office was 
on the second floor over this store. 21. Joseph Hart's Harness Shop. 
22. House of Henly R. Price. 23. "Bill" Carlile's Livery Stable. 

(Reproduo«d by permiBsion of Sociological Dep't of the C. F. & I. Co.) 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE BATTLE WITH THE WILDERNESS. 

Ever since the landing of the Pilgrim Fathers on 
our eastern coast, there has been waging a battle with 
the wilderness. In this struggle, the usual measure of 
a man— education, wealth and social position— were 
put at naught by those more virile qualities of strength, 
physical bravery and aggressiveness. Our frontier 
population has always been composed of the flower of 
our civilization ; not in the sense that it represented the 
culture and the education of the times, but because it 
stood for the strength, the courage, the virility of so- 
ciety. 

It has always been true that nations have been 
obliged to give their best blood in the defense of their 
frontiers— not only in war but also in times of peace. 
Men of muscle and brawn, of courage and determina- 
tion, men who were self-willed and strong in initiative 
have always been the ones who pushed forward into the 
firing line, either in war or peace and became the fram- 
ers of the nation's destiny. If perchance a weakling 
was carried forward by the tide of battle, he was speed- 
ily destroyed or was forced to retire. 

The men who composed the vanguard of our Colo- 
rado civilization were no exception to the rule. In the 
struggle to gain the mastery of the "last American 
frontier," the men were composed of the best blood 
and courage to be obtained from the Missouri river 
region, who in turn were the best of successive waves 

Forty-nine 



PATHBREAKERS AND PIONEERS 

of westward immigration extending back to our first 
frontier — the Atlantic sea board. 

No danger could daunt these men as they faced the 
Unknown West and stood ready to enter with their fam- 
ilies, this almost trackless region for the purpose of 
establishing themselves on the soil as farmers or on 
the river banks as city builders. The call of the West 
has ever been irresistible to the real red blood of Amer- 
ica; bad roads could not stifle it, dense forests were 
unable to hold it in check, blood-thirsty savages were 
ineffectual in stemming the tide. "A steady procession 
of pioneers has marched up the slopes of the Ap- 
palachians, across the trails of their summits, and 
down the various approaches to the Mississippi valley." 

The frontier lying beyond the great bend of the 
Missouri, which was reached in 1821, proved to be the 
most stubborn of all and for almost forty years refused 
to yield to the determined assaults of the hardy pio- 
neers. A new difficulty confronted the immigrants at 
this point. Heretofore, all frontiers had been con- 
quered by following the navigable rivers, but at the 
western line of the state of Missouri, the friendly course 
of the river forsook the travelers, compelling them to 
strike out across the prairie. This, being a new ex- 
perience, necessitated a considerable period of delay, 
and for a period of nearly forty years the enemy suc- 
cessfully resisted all attempts at invasion. 

In 1858 the enemy weakened and by the year 1860 
the great tidal wave of western immigration advanced 
Into the enemy's territory. The wilderness was pos- 
sessed but not conquered. 

Pueblo received her quota of men such as have 

Fifty 



OF THE PUEBLO REGION 

been described above. Here, to the forks of the river 
— at the crossing of the trails, came men whose blood 
was hot with the ambition of youth, whose souls were 
stirred by the possibilities offered in this western land, 
whose spirits were undaunted by the dangers and 
hardships with which they were confronted as they 
came with their families to hew out their fortunes in 
the valley of the Arkansas. 

In addition to solving the problem of establishing 
homes for their families and providing sustenance for 
them, these men found time to bear arms in defense of 
this western region against the Indians and against the 
forces of disunion ; they found time to lay the founda- 
tion of a great city and not a few found time to become 
a dynamic force in the building of this great common- 
wealth. These men were truly a band of nature's 
noblemen. 

We have told the story of Fountain City, how it 
was established by a group of men who came west as a 
part of that vast tide of gold seekers — how they stopped 
at the mouth of the Fountain river and surveyed the 
City on the Boiling Fountain. We shall now record the 
beginning of the city of Pueblo. It often happens that 
the original location of a town is not in the place where 
nature intended it to be. This was true in the case of 
Pueblo. There were many factors which prevented 
Fountain City from becoming the nucleus from which 
should grow the city of Pueblo. In the first place 
Fountain City was situated upon low ground which was 
in constant danger of overflowing during the summer 
months, yet there seemed to be no good reason why the 
town might not have been laid out on the higher ground 

Fifty-one 



PATHBREAKERS AND PIONEERS 

in the region now occupied by the residence portion of 
East Pueblo. Again, the character of its population 
led to the ultimate failure of the original town. There 
had drifted into Fountain City, during the summer and 
fall of 1859, a class of undesirable citizens — men who 
were the direct antithesis of the original settlers. In 
order to avoid the influence of these undesirables, a 
group of citizens, composing the better element, de- 
cided to lay out a new town. Another factor which 
was a vital force, not only in the location of the new 
town, but also in its ultimate success, was the location 
of the trail from the north and of the ford across the 
Arkansas. This trail followed the Fountain river down 
its east bank until it reached the vicinity of the present 
site of Woodcrof t where it crossed over to the west bank 
and proceeded to the ford of the Arkansas, which was at 
the foot of the present Santa Fe Avenue. It was at this 
point that the new town had its beginning. In the 
winter of 1859 and the early spring of 1860 two or 
three cabins had been erected in the vicinity of First 
Street and Santa Fe Avenue, but it was not until late 
spring of 1860 that any definite action was taken to- 
ward laying out a new town. 

On the 22nd of May, 1860, a meeting was called 
for the purpose of considering the organization of a 
town. 

According to the records of the Southern Colorado 
Pioneers' Association, the following persons were pres- 
ent at this meeting: Jack Allen, John Kearns, Albert 
Bercaw, W. H. Ricker, Dr. Catterson, Wesley Catterson, 
Ed Cozzens, A. C. Wright, Mrs. A. C. Wright and Mrs. 
Mary Simms. These records further state that it was 

Fifty-two 



OF THE PUEBLO REGION 

on July 1, I860, that the town was formerly "laid out" 
and named Pueblo in honor of the old fort which had 
stood for so many years on the opposite bank of the 
Arkansas, a single prophecy of "things yet to be." 

The town site was surveyed by Buel and Boyd, two 
surveyors from Denver. These surveyors presumably 
had a vision of a great city judging by the extent of 
the original survey. In the words of an early writer, it 
was encompassed by the following boundaries, "from 
the river back (north) two or three miles toward the 
divide, and from the Fountain on the east to Buzzard's 
ranch on the west. Near the mouth of Dry Creek was 
an extensive city park, filled with serpentine drives and 
walks, rare shrubbery and exotic flowers, amid which 
the alkali dust was gently subdued by the spray of a 
dozen refreshing fountains." 

It has caused keen disappointment to those who 
have attempted to record the development of Pueblo 
during its first decade of existence, to find that no rec- 
ords exist to corroborate many of the events which took 
place during this embryonic stage of the city's growth. 
Even the date of the formal laying out of the townsite 
is somewhat in doubt, although the date of July 1 is 
generally confirmed by pioneers still living. 

The rich gold strike in California Gulch, now Lead- 
ville, in the spring of 1860, was a fortunate event for 
the newly born town. First indications pointed to a 
discovery which would rival that of the Clear creek 
region, hence it was very reasonable to suppose that 
Pueblo would probably become the metropolis of the 
entire Pike's Peak region. It soon became evident, 
however, that if Pueblo's only hope of growth was de- 

Fifty-three 



PATHBREAKERS AND PIONEERS 

pendent upon the success of the gold strike in California 
Gulch, she was doomed to an early death, for in a short 
time the hopes of the prospectors went glimmering, and 
an exodus of people took place which seriously affected 
Pueblo. 

For seven long years Fate seemed to be against 
this struggling little village. During the years 1861 
to 1865 the Santa Fe trail became almost impassable 
and during 1864 was practically abandoned, owing to 
Indian outbreaks and to bands of Confederate guerillas 
operating in the Kansas region. Thus Pueblo and the 
entire southern part of the state were almost entirely 
cut off from communication with the east. This con- 
dition together with the general exodus of disappointed 
gold seekers from the entire Pike's Peak region, was a 
serious blow to the prosperity of the town. 

As late as July, 1864, one of these guerilla bands, 
composed of twenty-one Texans under one Reynolds, a 
former resident of Colorado, caused great excitement 
in the Arkansas valley. After robbing several wagon 
trains on the Santa Fe trail, in the eastern part of the 
state, the band proceeded up the Arkansas, and leaving 
Pueblo unmolested, entered South Park where they 
began plundering ranches throughout that entire 
region. They were pursued by a band of determined 
citizens who succeeded in killing four of the band and 
capturing the others. The prisoners were sent to Den- 
ver where they were turned over to the military au- 
thorities. From Denver they were ordered sent to Fort 
Lyon under a heavy guard. In a short time the entire 
military guard returned, stating that the prisoners had 
been killed while attempting to escape. The fact was 

Fifty-four 



OF THE PUEBLO REGION 

that the prisoners were taken to the head of Cherry 
creek and killed by the guard in order to be relieved of 
the journey to Fort Lyon. 

The necessities of life commanded fabulous prices 
during this period of isolation and only such food as 
was raised in the region could be purchased at any 
price. Flour brought $50 a barrel while corn and other 
grains were sold regularly for ten cents a pound. Eggs 
sold for $1.00 to $1.50 a dozen and butter at $1.00 to 
$1.50 a pound with other supplies in proportion. Stren- 
uous measures were often adopted to procure the neces- 
sities of life. Judge Stone, for many years a resident of 
Pueblo, recounts the following incident which occurred 
during this time : 

A certain Pueblo citizen, Squire Fowler by name, 
had loaded his ox-wagon with Mexican corn, which he 
had raised on the Fountain, and having hauled it to 
Joe Doyle's mill on the Huerfano had it ground into 
meal, intending to take the meal to California Gulch, 
which place was facing a famine through their inability 
to purchase supplies. The usual trail to that place led 
through Canon City, which was entirely out of both 
flour and meal. Certain citizens of Canon City, learn- 
ing of the contents of the Squire's cargo, halted him in 
the middle of the street and demanded that he sell his 
entire load of meal in their town, threatening to take it 
by force if he refused. Fowler gladly sold his entire 
load at a good figure and returned to Pueblo where he 
loaded his wagon as before and proceeded to California 
Gulch. At this place the Squire sold his load of meal 
for almost its weight in gold dust. 

The temporary abandonment of the southern trail 

FHfty-five 



PATHBREAKERS AND PIONEERS 

threw all western traffic into Denver by way of the 
Oregon Trail and the South Platte, and as all arrivals 
in Denver were told that "there was nothing worth 
seeing south of the divide," the isolation of Pueblo be- 
came complete. 

After Pueblo was laid out Fountain City ceased to 
prosper and by autumn of 1860 its population was less 
than it was the year before. In spite of the death blow 
which had been dealt it by the new town, however, its 
inhabitants continued their agricultural efforts, bring- 
ing under irrigation a constantly increasing area from 
which very profitable returns were realized. Although 
the greater part of its population gradually drifted 
away, a few families continued to reside in the vicinity 
of Fountain City for several years. 

Judge Stone arrived in Pueblo in the winter of 
1861-62. At that time he remembers seeing but three 
cabins, that of Jack Allen at the foot of Santa Fe, on 
the banks of the river. The principal business of Jack 
was "the sale of bacon, flour, coffee, Mexican frijoles 
and Taos lightning." Jack also kept a tavern, his 
guests being required to provide their own blankets, 
the landlord furnishing space on the dirt floor for their 
beds. There was also an adobe cabin, built by Col. 
Albert Galletin Boone, a grandson of Daniel Boone of 
Kentucky, and on the east side of Santa Fe Avenue 
near Second or Third Street was a two-room cabin of 
Cottonwood logs. Aaron Simms was the first post- 
master and Daniel J. Hayden was the second one. 

As has already been intimated, the growth of Pueblo 
during the sixties was very slow. Its population was 
constantly shifting. In 1867 there were only twenty 

Fifty-six 



OF THE PUEBLO REGION 

or thirty houses, but during the next three years its 
population showed a substantial increase as the United 
States census of 1870 credited the town with a popula- 
tion of 666. An interesting account was given the 
writer by Eugene Weston, who, as county clerk took 
the first county census. This census was taken in 1866 
and showed a population in the county of 800 persons. 
Mr. Weston states that out of this entire number there 
were but six unmarried females over fourteen years of 
age and four of these were Mexican girls. 

Uncle Dick Wooten was one of the historic char- 
acters of Colorado long before Pueblo had its beginning. 
Having given up his former life as a trapper, he settled 
at the mouth of the Huerfano river in 1853, where he 
engaged in farming. He removed from this place eight 
years later, according to his "autobiography," and lo- 
cated on the Fountain nine miles above Pueblo where 
he continued his agricultural pursuits until floods and 
grasshoppers caused him to abandon the farm for more 
lucrative employment. On leaving Pueblo he took up 
his abode south of Trinidad on the Raton Pass where 
he built a wagon road, the toll from which provided a 
comfortable income for him during the remainder of 
his life. 

Mr. Wooten built two houses in Pueblo in 1861, in 
one of which he conducted a mercantile business. 
Uncle Dick had been quite familiar with the Pueblo 
region for a great many years, having traversed it 
before there were any evidences of civilization in this 
locality. His own story of the "buffalo farm," which 
he conducted on the present site of Pueblo is inter- 

Fifty-seven 



PATHBREAKERS AND PIONEERS 

esting and well worth recounting even though one 
chooses not to believe it. 

In 1840, when Uncle Dick was engaged in supply- 
ing meat to Bent's Fort, he succeeded in capturing two 
buffalo calves, whose mothers had been killed. He 
placed the two orphans in a corral with a milch cow 
but "bossy" stoutly protested against any such abuse of 
her motherly office although she finally was induced to 
submit. The calves thrived and grew to maturity. This 
gave Uncle Dick an idea; he began capturing buffalo 
calves wherever he could procure them, his entire ac- 
cumulation amounting to forty-four. He then built a 
corral at the present site of Pueblo, in which were 
placed a sufficient number of cows to minister to the 
physical wants of these little strangers. According to 
his story his experiment was entirely successful, the 
calves soon becoming so tame that they could be turned 
out on the range with the cows. He kept them until 
they were three years old when they were sold to New 
York parties to be placed in zoological gardens and in 
traveling menageries. He drove them overland to 
Kansas City, and two of the buffalo being hitched to a 
wagon at the start were well broken by the time their 
destination was reached. 

Pueblo County was organized in 1862 and included 
the entire south-eastern part of Colorado, embracing 
in addition to its present territory, the counties of Bent, 
Baca, Otero, Prowers, Huerfano, Las Animas and 
Crowley. The first Board of County Commissioners 
was composed of R. L. Wooten, W. H. Chapman and 
O. H. P. Baxter, Mr. Wooten being chairman. The 
first meeting of this board was held on February 17th 

Fifty-eight 



OF THE PUEBLO REGION 

and its most important action was the formal location 
of the county seat, the selection of a site for a court 
house and adopting specifications for a county building. 

These specifications called for a log house 18 feet 
by 24 feet and 10 feet high, with a roof composed of 
three inches of mortar covered with four inches of dirt. 
The contract for this pretentious edifice was awarded 
to Aaron Simms for $300. The most interesting fact 
about this building is that it was never erected. The 
county records are silent as to the reason for failure to 
erect this building although it is probable that funds 
were not available and that the amount of county busi- 
ness was so insignificant as to make any expenditure 
of money for a building, unnecessary. Rooms were 
rented for office purposes until 1866, when the building 
now standing at Third and Santa Fe, known as No. 228 
N. Santa Fe, was purchased from Stephen Smith. This 
building was occupied until 1872 when a new and very 
imposing brick structure was erected on the present 
Court House Square. 

Many people have wondered why the old court 
house building at Third and Santa Fe was built in the 
street. Mr. Smith, its original owner and builder, gave 
the writer the following account of its erection : 

Not long after the organization of the new town, 
lots were assigned to those who were instrumental in 
laying it out. Although Mr. Smith was one of the first 
residents of the town, his claim to a lot was overlooked 
owing to his absence from the town at that time. Find- 
ing, upon his return, that the desirable lots had all 
been assigned and that nothing remained for him, he 
erected this building in the middle of Third Street. 

Fifty-nine 



PATHBREAKERS AND PIONEERS 

The first revenue of the new county was derived 
from a license tax of $2.50 to $5.00 a month levied on 
all business firms. The first regular tax levy which 
was made some months later was as follows : "3 mills on 
the $ levied on all property assessed for territorial pur- 
poses. Also that there shall be a tax of 1 mill on the $ 
for county purposes, also Vz mill on the $ for school 
purposes." At this time Col. A. G. Boone, grandson 
of the famous Daniel Boone, was chairman of the board, 
one of the original members having resigned. 

Following are some interesting extracts from the 
county commissioners' records : 

"August 10, 1862, Resolved : That the clerk be em- 
powered to rent a certain house known as William 
Kroenig's, at a rent of not more than $10 a month, to 
be used for County purposes." 

"September, 1865, Resolved: That the room oc- 
cupied by the County Clerk in the house of P. K. Dotson, 
be rented for County purposes at $10 per month." 

"July, 1866, Resolved: That Messrs. Keeling and 
Thomas be ordered to procure a license for running 
their ferry boat across the Arkansas river, and that the 
fee be placed at $25." 

In October, 1867, the records disclose the fact that 
the county sheriff was ordered to procure a load of wood 
for the use of the county during the October term of 
court. 

On July 7, 1869, the commissioners received a com- 
munication from the Arkansas River Ferry Company 
asking the county authorities to fix rates of toll across 

Sixty 



OF THE PUEBLO REGION 

the river. In accordance with this request the follow- 
ing rates were established : 

For foot passengers $0.25 

One or two horse vehicles 1.00 

Four horses or mules 2.50 

Three yoke of oxen 2.50 

An interesting picture of Pueblo as it appeared to 
a traveler in 1866, is found in an old volume, long since 
out of print. "The town is composed of some fifteen or 
twenty houses, three stores, a tavern, and an immense 
sign board which has evidently seen better days in some 
more metropolitan locality. The sign in question bears 
this 'strange device' : EL PROGRESSO. 

"Behind and under it is a saloon, making the pros- 
pective 'progress' for Pueblo of a dubious and ques- 
tionable character * * * landed on the south bank 
(of the Arkansas) , we camped near a magnificent grove 
of large cottonwoods — one of them measuring sixteen 
feet in circumference." 

If the writer of the above lines were to visit Pueblo 
now he would doubtless be pleased to note that after 
fifty years of the "El Progresso" type of prosperity, 
she has finally abolished the "big sign" and the "strange 
device" from her midst and that her prosperity is based 
upon a higher type of business than that mentioned 
above. 

On November 25, 1867, the board of county com- 
missioners, consisting of G. H. Puntenny, J. P. Murray 
and P. D. Moore, passed a resolution which was of far 
reaching importance, financially to the county. This 
was a resolution authorizing Mr. George A. Hinsdale, 
(the name of Mr. Mark G. Bradford being substituted 

Sixty-one 



PATHBREAKERS AND PIONEERS 

later), acting as trustee for Pueblo County, to make 
application to the Federal Land Board at Denver, for 
a quarter-section of land lying between what is now 
7th Street and 15th Street, the proceeds of this land to 
be used for a county building. This action was taken 
under the federal statutes permitting counties to pre- 
empt land not otherwise appropriated, the proceeds to 
be used as stated above. 

This venture proved unusually successful. As the 
town began to grow, several public auctions of lots were 
held by the commissioners, the total proceeds, up to the 
sale of April 13, 1872, amounting to $35,225. Other 
sales were held by the commissioners subsequent to 
this, and quite a number of lots were sold during the 
year 1876, while Charles Henkle was chairman of the 
board. 

Before 1862 there was no regular mail service to 
Pueblo, the only means of receiving mail being through 
the more or less irregular arrivals of parties from Den- 
ver. Although Denver enjoyed daily mail service as 
early as the summer of 1860 it was not until two years 
later that a government route was established in the 
Pueblo region, the service being weekly. Later the 
service was extended to three times a week, Mr. A. 
Jacobs of Denver being the carrier, Mr. Jacobs at the 
same time put into operation a fine stage line between 
Denver and Trinidad. Mr. Jacobs was succeeded by 
Barlow and Sanderson, who in 1870 inaugurated a 
daily service between the above points which was main- 
tained until the building of the Denver and Rio Grande 
railroad in 1872. 

During the summer of 1863 a company of the 

Sixty-two 



OF THE PUEBLO REGION 

First Colorado Cavalry was stationed at Pueblo for the 
purpose of escorting the stage up and down the valley, 
a regular stage line having been established between 
Kansas City and Fairplay, via the Santa Fe trail, by 
Barlow and Sanderson. Mr. Charles Henkle, one of the 
oldest residents of Pueblo, was a member of this com- 
pany, and states that their headquarters were at the 
present site of Lannon's foundry, which was then south 
of the river. 

The federal government at this time was straining 
every nerve in its struggle against the forces of dis- 
union and as a consequence the troops were withdrawn 
from Pueblo, thus leaving the trail unprotected. 

According to their usual custom the Indians who 
had been on the war path, signed a treaty of peace as 
winter approached and were given the usual govern- 
ment bounties of food, blankets and ammunition. The 
murderous savages were thus placed in comfortable 
winter quarters and provided with a liberal supply of 
ammunition for another campaign in the spring — and 
all at government expense. 

Again, true to their usual custom, with the opening 
of the spring of 1864, the plains Indians went on the war 
path, keeping the entire region from Denver to Pueblo 
in constant terror Details of the threatened attack of 
Pueblo by the Indians and the erection of a stockade 
and block-house, will be given in a subsequent chapter. 

In 1862 the first flour mill was erected in Pueblo. 
Eugene Weston, now of Canon City, secured the assist- 
ance of an Illinois company, the machinery being 
brought to Pueblo only by the greatest difficulty. The 
timbers which composed the lower part of this three- 

Sixty-tbree 



PATHBREAKERS AND PIONEERS 

story structure, were hauled from Mace's Hole in the 
region of what is now known as Beulah, the sawed lum- 
ber being hauled from a sawmill on the divide near 
Palmer Lake. This mill, which was located about thirty 
or forty yards south of the present asylum grounds, was 
looked upon as a thoroughly modern structure. It 
seemed for a time that there was to be added to Pueblo's 
industries one that would be of vital importance to the 
entire region, but Fate had decreed otherwise, for no 
sooner had the building been completed and the machin- 
ery installed than the entire structure took fire and 
burned to the ground. The plant was a complete loss. 

No further steps were taken to establish the mill- 
ing industry in Pueblo until 1865, when Mr. Jewett 
erected the mill that stood for so long a time on the 
present site of the Federal building. The old mill ditch 
will be remembered by pioneers as running through 
the property where the Rood Candy Company's plant 
now stands ; traversing that section of town lying just 
south of the Hinsdale school, it ran in a southerly direc- 
tion after leaving the mill and joined the river near the 
vicinity of First and Main Streets. It should be remem- 
bered that at that time the river approached the city to 
the vicinity of Eighth and West Streets at which point 
it took a bold turn south to First Street. It crossed 
First Street at about the place occupied by the Traction 
Company's Triangle Block. 

The flour mill was purchased the following year by 
O. H. P. Baxter and later was operated by the firm of 
Thatcher and Baxter. This mill became the Mecca for 
farmers in all directions from Pueblo, wheat, in some 
instances, being hauled a distance of seventy-five miles. 

Sixty-four 



CHAPTER V. 

THE BATTLE WON. 

The victor who stands upon a summit and views a 
conquered city wrested from the enemy by a fair fight, 
has feelings akin to those of the pioneer who looked out 
over this vast area of western territory and beheld the 
receding forces of nature withdrawing from the com- 
bat. 

The battle with the wilderness was a fair one, but 
with odds somewhat in favor of the wilderness. This 
advantage was due to two things over which the pioneer 
had no control. In the first place the wilderness was in 
undisputed control and in the second place it had en- 
listed as an ally, that dreaded foe — the red man. 
Against this combined foe thoroughly entrenched, the 
pioneer was compelled to charge. It seemed for a time 
that this combination was too strong for the pioneer to 
cope with successfully, but his indomitable perserver- 
ance, his undaunted courage, his unparalleled bravery 
finally won for him a lasting victory. 

Three events occurred in the year 1868 which not 
only indicated the progress of the town but also gave 
promise of its permanence. They were the building of 
the telegraph line to Pueblo, the establishing of a week- 
ly newspaper, The Colorado Chieftain, and the building 
of the first church. 

In the fall of 1867 the United States and Mexico 
Railway and Telegraph Company was organized in 
Denver for the purpose of building a railway and tele- 

Sixty-five 



PATHBREAKERS AND PIONEERS 

graph line to Mexico via Pueblo and Santa Fe. In May 
of the following year their telegraph line entered 
Pueblo, thus making the first permanent link in that 
chain which was to bind the town to eastern civilization. 

The Colorado Chieftain, the first issue of which 
appeared on June 1, 1868, was the pioneer newspaper 
of Southern Colorado, and for some time continued to 
be the only paper published between Denver and Santa 
Fe. This paper, now known as the Pueblo Chieftain, 
has had a somewhat remarkable career, never having 
missed an issue or changed its location since it began 
nearly fifty years ago. Its files are complete and con- 
tain some of the most valuable historical material to 
be had anywhere in the west. The paper was estab- 
lished by Dr. M. Beshoar. A year or two later Dr. 
Beshoar removed to Trinidad and sold the Chieftain to 
Samuel McBride, who later sold it to Captain J. J. Lam- 
bert. George A. Hinsdale and Wilbur F. Stone were its 
editors. The subscription price of the paper was $5 a 
year and 25c a copy. It continued its weekly publica- 
tions until 1872 at which time it became a daily. 

Among the business firms who advertised in the 
initial issue, the following will be of interest to the 
older residents of the city: C. D. Peck, meat market; 
Henry Hiney, Planters Hotel; James Rice, cigars and 
tobacco; Rettberg and Bartels, groceries; Thatcher 
Bros., dry goods, groceries, hardware and clothing; 
Leonard and Dotson, saw mill at Mace's Hole. The 
following professional cards appear in the same issue : 
P. R. Thomes, M. D. ; A. A. Bradford, attorney-at-law ; 
Wilbur F. Stone, attorney-at-law; George A. Hins- 

Sixty-six 



OF THE PUEBLO REGION 

dale, attorney-at-law ; Henry C. Thatcher, attorney-ai>- 
law. 

The first issue of the Chieftain contains a notice 
of the death of Kit Carson, and a memorial tribute to 
the famous pioneer by Wilbur F. Stone. 

The following are interesting news items selected 
from the first issue of the Chieftain : 

"The railroad prospects for Southern Colorado are 
growing brighter every day. Three different routes 
through the southern part of the state have been sur- 
veyed or examined by the U. P. R. R. Co., from which 
to select for the main line of their road. The third 
route is up the Arkansas through Pueblo." 

"Several of our boys have just returned from a 
prospecting trip about the headwaters of the 
Huerfano." 

"M. D. Thatcher received nineteen heavy wagon 
loads of freight on Friday last. He has now a splendid 
stock of goods." 

"Messrs. Wildeboor & Oilman have placed a row of 
pine boughs in front of the awning of their popular 
restaurant. They make a delightful shade. The idea 
is a capital one." 

"We note that a good many hogs are running at 
large in our streets in violation of the statutes. Their 
presence in the streets is a nuisance which ought to be 
abated. Why is not the law enforced?" 

"Among the improvements lately commenced in 
our town we notice a large warehouse for M. D. Thatch- 
er, Esq., at the corner above Thatcher's store." 

"H. C. Thatcher, Esq., is also erecting a new office 
building on Santa Fe Ave." 

Sixty-seven 



PATHBREAKERS AND PIONEERS 

"J. E. Smith is erecting a capacious blacksmith 
shop on the first cross street above Anker's." 

An account of the Democratic County Convention, 
held on May 13, 1868, is given in this first issue of the 
Chieftain. The names of the following persons appear 
as delegates to the state convention : M. Anker, Wilbur 
F. Stone, J. M. Branneman, P. K. Dotson, M. Beshoar, 
Lewis Barnum and others. 

An account of the Republican Convention, which 
was held a little later, shows the following men as 
prominent in political circles: M. G. Bradford, J. D. 
Miller, H. C. Thatcher, A. A. Bradford, 0. H. P. Baxter, 
M. D. Thatcher and C. J. Hart. 

The following stage schedule published in the 
Chieftain gives a vivid picture of the splendid isolation 
of Pueblo before the coming of the railroad : 

Schedule of Mail Stages. 

Pueblo to Denver Tues., Th., Sat. 

Pueblo to Canon City Mon., Fri. 

Pueblo to Santa Fe via Ft. Garland Thursday only 

Pueblo to Bent's Fort Tues., Th., Sat. 

The article quoted below, from the Chieftain, gives 
a glimpse of the development of the Pueblo region 
during 1867 and 1868: 

"A glance at the products of Pueblo County for the 
last year (1867), will indicate faintly some of Pueblo's 
resources. There were produced during the past year 
in Pueblo County, 300,000 bushels of corn, 100,000 
bushels of wheat — to say nothing of oats, buckwheat 
and barley. There were owned in the county, 12,000 
head of cattle, 20,000 head of sheep and 2,000 hogs. 

Sixty-eight 



OF THE PUEBLO REGION 

"Eight months ago there were scarcely 75 inhab- 
itants in Pueblo; now its population is but little less 
than 500 souls. Pueblo stands forth today with bright 
prospects of a permanent and prosperous future." 

In 1871 the "Pueblo People," a weekly paper, made 
its first appearance, with Mr. Hinsdale as editor. It 
continued its existence until 1874 when the plant and 
equipment were taken over by the Chifetain. 

In 1874 the Pueblo Republican was established 
under the management of J. M. Murphy. After a short 
life it was purchased by Dr. Hull and brother of Mis- 
souri and in 1876, after a change of name and prin- 
ciples, it emerged as the "Democrat," and still later 
became the "Daily News," under the ownership of 
Judge Royal. 

In April, 1868, steps were taken toward the erec- 
tion of the first church building. Church services had 
been held by various denominations in the old court 
house at Third and Santa Fe. The Episcopal Church 
continued its efforts until the organization known as 
St. Peter's Church, had been effected and sufficient 
funds raised to warrant the erection of a church build- 
ing. The project was placed in charge of the following 
committee : George A. Hinsdale, Wilbur F. Stone, H, C. 
Thatcher, J. W. Snyder, F. W. Walker, Jas. Rice and 
Klaas Wildeboor; the building committee being com- 
posed of Messrs. Hart, Young and Weston. The build- 
ing was constructed of adobe bricks and still stands at 
the corner of Seventh and Santa Fe. At the time it was 
erected it was in the outskirts of the town, there being 
but two buildings beyond it. 

Sixty-nine 



PATHBREAKERS AND PIONEERS 

A tower, ten feet square, was erected upon the 
church from which was suspended a bell. A member of 
the committee states that on a certain beautiful Sunday 
morning, when for the first time the old bell pealed 
out in clear tones its call to worship, — tones which were 
strange, indeed, to the ears of these isolated western- 
ers — tears came to the eyes of more than one person 
whose soul was stirred by the memory of a little church 
back in the "states," from which he had been separated 
for so many years. 

In 1868 another serious Indian outbreak occurred. 
The Indians remained on their good behavior for some 
time after their Sand Creek lesson, but the spring of 
the year just mentioned saw them on the war path 
again, and during that summer they kept the inhabi- 
tants of the Fountain valley and Monument creek in 
El Paso County, in constant terror, many atrocious 
murders being committed by the savages. Fortunately, 
the Pueblo region was again spared, no depredations 
being reported from this section. Much apprehension 
was felt for the settlers in the more remote sections of 
the Pueblo region, however, and many of them loaded 
their belongings upon their wagons and taking their 
families, came to Pueblo to remain until the Indians 
were ready to sign another "treaty of peace." 

The following clippings from the Chieftain of 
September 10, 1868, speak eloquently of the situation : 

"Quite a number of families have moved into town 
for the purpose of being safe from the Indians." 

"The Indians took, on Saturday last, 29 head of 
horses belonging to Jacob Geil. The horses were taken 

Seventy 



OF THE PUEBLO REGION 

from a place near Terrils on the Fountain, 30 miles 
above Pueblo." 

"Owing to the Indian dangers along the route from 
Denver to this place, the coaches on the Denver and 
Santa Fe stage line will run only once a week until it 
becomes sufficiently safe to replace the stock at the 
stations on the route." 

The danger in which the Pueblo region was placed 
by the Indian outbreak was greatly augmented by the 
removal of the troops from Forts Reynolds and Lyon. 
The inhabitants of Southern Colorado had by this time 
become indignant beyond bounds at the failure of the 
government to protect its citizens from the savages. 
The government not only failed to provide adequate 
protection to its frontier population, but it persisted in 
the pernicious practice of issuing arms and ammunition 
in large quantities to the Indians, presumably for their 
use in hunting buffalo. In many instances the Indians 
were better armed and possessed greater quantities of 
ammunition than the settlers. 

In the year 1869, the business men of Pueblo and 
vicinity realizing the benefit to the city of united action 
in advertising the resources of this region, organized 
the Board of Trade of Southern Colorado, their primary 
object being to publish and distribute literature adver- 
tising the Arkansas valley hoping by this means to 
attract the Union Pacific railroad to this region. From 
this pamphlet the following information is gleaned: 
The population was slightly less than 800. The moral 
tone of the town was pronounced by the editing com- 
mittee as "good," the tangible evidence offered in proof 
of this assertion being the fact that the town had two 

Seventy-one 



PATHBREAKERS AND PIONEERS 

church organizations, the Episcopal and the Methodist. 
The location of Pueblo, "at the crossing of the great 
routes from the east and between New Mexico and 
Colorado, brought a throng of people to its public 
houses." This report shows further that during the 
year 1868 the value of merchandise sold was $390,980, 
and the total value of manufactured goods, consisting 
largely of leather goods, furniture and agricultural im- 
plements, aggregated $35,600, and, finally, that during 
the same year one million pounds of freight had been 
received in Pueblo. 

Of the many "colonies" establishing themselves in 
Colorado during the early seventies, one is of special 
interest to us in view of the fact that it located in 
close proximity to Pueblo. 

In 1869 a group of Germans living in Chicago were 
desirous of securing a location in the west. The ad- 
vertising pamphlet of the newly organized Board of 
Trade of Southern Colorado, having fallen into the 
hands of one member of the group, it was decided to 
send a committee to the Arkansas valley to reconnoiter. 
The final result of this investigation was a recommenda- 
tion that the colony be brought to the Wet Mountain 
valley, some fifty miles west of Pueblo. 

Accordingly, in the spring of 1870, the colony, con- 
sisting of about 350 persons with a full equipment of 
farm implements and machinery for grist mills, etc., 
embarked from Chicago under the leadership of Carl 
Wulstein, one of their own countrymen. They were 
obliged to make the journey overland from the terminus 
of the Kansas Pacific Railroad, which was at that time 
in western Kansas. The United States government co- 

Seventy-two 



OF THE PUEBLO REGION 

operated freely with the colonists in this enterprise. 
Their goods were hauled by government wagons, they 
were given the use of government tents and it was even 
asserted that provisions for the journey were provided 
at government expense. 

A grand reception was held for these colonists 
upon their arrival at Pueblo. The usual round of ad- 
dresses of welcome and responses were given by citizens 
and leading members of the colony. The travelers 
camped just outside the town, and, upon their departure 
the next morning, halted on Santa Fe Avenue in order 
that their caravan, consisting of some seventy wagons, 
might be viewed by the populace. 

From Pueblo the party moved on to the Wet Moun- 
tain valley where all who were eligible took up home- 
steads. Soon afterwards the town of Colfax was laid 
out. Lacking a motive either political or religious, it 
was inevitable that there could be no permanent co- 
herence and in consequence but a short time had 
elapsed e'er the process of disintegration set in. Al- 
though most of the colonists remained in the valley and 
became prosperous farmers, the organization itself soon 
disbanded. 

The Central Colorado Improvement Company, 
though often referred to as the "South Pueblo Colony," 
was not a colony in the strict sense of the term. Al- 
though it was responsible for the establishing and the 
developing of South Pueblo, it acted more in the ca- 
pacity of a townsite company, drawing people to its 
project by means of advertising the resources of this 
locality. The most characteristic feature of the "col- 
ony," namely the simultaneous movement of a group 

Seventy-three 



PATHBREAKERS AND PIONEERS 

of settlers into a region, was lacking. The history of 
this organization will be considered more in detail in a 
later chapter. 

On March 22, 1870, Pueblo became an incorporated 
town with the following persons as trustees: George 
A. Hinsdale, M. G. Bradford, James Rice, H. C. Thatch- 
er, and J. D. Miller as clerk, and Z. G. Allen as con- 
stable, all receiving their positions through appoint- 
ment by the Board of County Commissioners. On April 
4, following, an election was held, the following persons 
being elected: George A. Hinsdale, Lewis Conley, 
O. H. P. Baxter, Sam McBride and C. P. Peabody, with 
August Beech as clerk and J. F. Smith as constable. 
At this election 110 ballots were cast. 

While the federal census of 1870 recorded the pop- 
ulation of Pueblo as 666, the county census at the close 
of that year gave the town a population of 1002 and 
that of the county 2323. 

Other events which indicated the rapid and sub- 
stantial development of the town at the close of this 
period were the securing of a daily mail service from 
Denver, the creation of the Arkansas Valley Land 
District, together with the opening of the land office 
in Pueblo, the abandonment of the old toll bridge, which 
was made possible by the erection of a new county 
bridge across the Arkansas, and the erection of the new 
court house, these events occurring within the space of 
two years. 

During the first ten years of her existence, Pueblo 
was obliged to content herself with nothing better than 
a tri-weekly mail service, but in the winter of 1870, 
through the influence of Pueblo's territorial delegate, 

Seventy-four 



OF THE PUEBLO REGION 

A. A. Bradford, a daily service was secured between 
Pueblo and Denver. 

Pueblo had long felt the need of more adequate 
facilities for entering public lands, the nearest office 
being at Denver. By the most patient and painstaking 
efforts of our territorial delegate, the office at Pueblo 
was secured with M. G. Bradford as the receiver and 
Ed. Wheeler as register. 

Early in the history of Pueblo a private bridge was 
built across the Arkansas at the foot of Santa Fe Ave- 
nue, and for many years W. H. Young enjoyed the 
exclusive privilege of collecting tolls from all those who 
preferred to cross the river with dry feet. The question 
of a county bridge had been agitated for some time but 
through the influence of the owner of this private 
bridge, definite steps toward the building of a free 
bridge were postponed from time to time. 

Finally, however, matters had proceeded so far 
that the private monopoly seemed in imminent danger 
of being swept away by the progressive spirit which 
had taken hold upon the community, whereupon. Young 
threatened to institute injunction proceedings to pre- 
vent the erection of the bridge or to bring suit for dam- 
ages against the county in case the bridge was built. 

Another controversy arose over the location of the 
proposed bridge. One faction wished the bridge to be 
located at the foot of Main Street, while the other fac- 
tion stoutly insisted that it should be on Santa Fe. The 
Main Street faction raised a bonus of $1600 to secure 
the bridge on their street, and, although the Santa 
Fe-ites secured a bonus of only $1525, the commission- 

Seventy-five 



PATHBREAKERS AND PIONEERS 

ers decided in their favor and built the bridge on 
Santa Fe. 

In April, 1872, the contract for building the bridge 
was awarded to the firm of Redfield, Smith & Co. The 
commissioners, fearing legal difficulties with Young, 
required of those citizens interested in having the 
bridge built, a guarantee bond to protect the county 
against any judgment that might be secured by Young. 
The bond was presented by Wilbur F. Stone and was 
signed by Bartels Bros., John A. Thatcher and sixteen 
others. So far as the records show no damages were 
ever sought. 

In October, 1872, the first annual fair was held by 
the newly organized Agricultural Society of Southern 
Colorado, although it was not until November, 1886, 
that the present State Fair Association was incorpor- 
ated, at which time fifty acres of ground near Mineral 
Palace Park was purchased for $3,000, some $5,000 
being expended for improvements. The first fair was 
held in the fall of the next year. Land values increased 
so rapidly that in 1890 the association was able to sell 
its property for $48,000. Soon after this the present 
location, comprising 100 acres on the mesa, was pur- 
chased for $30,000. 

The Pueblo Public Library Association was found- 
ed in 1873. This was a stock company which issued 200 
shares of stock at $50 each. The stock was quickly 
purchased by public spirited citizens and articles of in- 
corporation were duly filed by the committee consisting 
of G. Q. Richmond, J. 0. Jordan, A. P. George and C. J. 
Reed. In May of the same year the Pueblo Library and 
Reading Room was formally opened by an address by 

Seventy-six 



OP THE PUEBLO REGION 

Mr. George A. Hinsdale. This first library was located 
on the west side of Santa Fe Avenue, just below Fourth 
Street. 

On May 9, 1871, the Board of County Commis- 
sioners voted to call for the submission of plans for a 
new court house and for bids for the erection of the 
same, the building to be erected upon the ground which 
had been secured by pre-emption. All of these years 
court had been held in the little adobe building on 
Santa Fe, but now it was proposed to erect such a build- 
ing as would be adequate for many years to come. 

There were in the treasury something over $35,000, 
the aggregate receipts from the sale of the county land. 
This made it possible to erect this magnificent building 
without adding a cent to the tax levy. This building 
served the county for nearly forty years and was torn 
down to give place to the largest and most costly county 
building in the state. 

With the completion of the court house and the 
coming of the Rio Grande railroad, Pueblo took her 
place as the recognized metropolis of Southern Colo- 
rado. Its rapid growth is indicated by the fact that 
on March 26, 1873, the town trustees passed an ordi- 
nance, declaring that Pueblo, having exceeded the re- 
quired population of 3,000, should become the City of 
Pueblo, it having been originally incorporated as the 
Town of Pueblo. Its population at this time was nearly 
3,500. 

In the same year a bond issue of $130,000 was 
authorized by a vote of the people for the purpose of 
installing a system of waterworks and on June 24, 1874, 
the present water system was completed. Business 

Seventy-seven 



PATHBREAKERS AND PIONEERS 

houses were closed and with impressive ceremony, con- 
ducted by the Masonic lodge, the water works building 
was dedicated. Probably no other single improvement 
had as much to do with the subsequent growth of Pueblo 
as did the building of this water system. 

The coming of the railroads into Colorado affected 
profoundly the destiny of the state, the most important 
result being the hastening of statehood through the 
rapid increase of population and wealth. The history 
of the struggle for statehood is an interesting one, — so 
interesting, in fact, that the writer almost yields to the 
temptation to turn aside and devote some time to its 
consideraion. Since it is not properly a part of this 
book, however, its discussion must be omitted. Suffice 
it to say, that Pueblo was a vital force in shaping the 
future welfare of the state, during the period of con- 
stitution-making, through her two most excellent and 
able delegates, Hon. Henry C. Thatcher and Hon. Wil- 
bur F. Stone. 

The Centennial celebration of 1876 was observed 
by Pueblo and due regard was had for the fact that it 
was also the celebration of Colorado's admission as a 
state. Upon this day, under the cottonwood tree near 
the old Baxter mill, where the Federal building now 
stands. Judge Stone delivered a historical sketch of 
Pueblo. This sketch was later forwarded to the na- 
tional capital and deposited in the archives of the 
Library of Congress. 

The gold discovery in Leadville, in the year 1877, 
proved a bonanza to Pueblo. During the seven years 
following this date her population was increased three- 
fold. Other mining camps sprung up in the vicinity 

Seventy-eight 



OF THE PUEBLO REGION 

of the headwaters of the Arkansas, all of which in- 
creased the carrying trade and other forms of business 
of Pueblo, this being the chief and practically only 
distributing point for the entire region of the head- 
waters of the Arkansas. 

Under this stimulus many new business blocks 
were erected and new firms entered the field to capture 
a share of the lucrative business which had sprung 
up as a result of these various mining enterprises. 

Two interesting bits of history not generally 
known by the younger generation of Pueblo cit- 
izens deserve mention here, not so much because of 
their importance as on account of their interest. 

On January 1, 1874, a bill was introduced in the 
territorial legislature for the removal of the state's cap- 
ital to Pueblo. A strong array of facts was presented 
by the Colorado Chieftain in support of the bill. A 
forty-acre tract of land was to be provided and a cash 
bonus was to be raised by Pueblo citizens to reimburse 
the state for certain expenses incident to the removal 
of the offices to Pueblo. This bill passed the house by 
a vote of 16 to 5, but was lost in the senate through the 
"perfidy" of a certain senator from the southern part 
of the territory. 

The other incident was the proposed secession of 
Southern Colorado and the organization of the state 
of San Juan. This occurred in the year 1877 and was 
the result of the influence of certain men in this section, 
who felt that Denver and the northern part of the state 
were securing more than their share of the political 
honors of the state. A memorial was prepared to be 
presented to Congress pleading the right of the citizens 

Seventy-nine 



PATHBREAKERS AND PIONEERS 

to organize a new state, using as a precedent the case 
of West Virginia. 

In the height of its popularity the movement sud- 
denly collapsed through the influence of a newspaper 
article written by E. K. Stimson of Pueblo, holding the 
whole movement up to ridicule. 



Eighty 



CHAPTER VI. 

INDIAN ADVENTURES IN VALLEY AND PLAIN. 

It is difficult for us to get the point of view of the 
frontiersman in regard to the Indians and how best to 
deal with them. He was not in position to apply any 
finely spun theory regarding the rights of the "poor 
Indian," or how to make him over into an American 
citizen. He was facing the stern fact which none knew 
better than he, of kill or be killed, and that in the very 
nature of things he could not live side by side with these 
Indians without his life and the lives of his family 
being in constant jeopardy. His logic was that the 
only trustworthy Indians were the dead ones. Nor 
had the hardy pioneer arrived at these conclusions by 
the study of any long drawn-out "reports of committees 
on Indian affairs." He had been driven to this way of 
thinking by bitter experience. 

Undoubtedly, much injury was done, not only to 
the frontier settlers in the useless loss of hundreds of 
lives and millions of dollars worth of property, but to 
the Indian himself, by the sentimental attitude of the 
government in dealing with these aborigines. The 
whole problem resolved itself into this fact which is 
universal in history and biology, that the weaker and 
less developed life, — whether human or animal, must 
give way before the onset of a stronger and higher 
developed one. Any attempt to make the outcome 
otherwise, is but a fruitless endeavor to stem the tide 
of evolution. It were better by far that we should 

Eighty-one 



PATHBREAKERS AND PIONEERS 

forget that chapter of American history which treats 
with governmental dealings with the Indians. 

The adventures recorded in this chapter are the 
most typical ones gleaned from early records and 
given by word of mouth by pioneers who lived in the 
Pueblo region when its possession was disputed by the 
red men. They are true in-so-far as the writer has been 
able to determine their truth, and being true they may 
be lacking in that "thrill" which is typical of the "made- 
to-order" adventure. They possess a sufficient amount 
of interest, however, to have held spell-bound the juven- 
ile members of a certain family upon many a star-lit 
evening as they were told and retold even to the point 
of being worn threadbare by repetitions. It is more 
on account of their interest than because of their histor- 
ical value, that they are made a part of this book. 

The most notable Indian massacre occurring in the 
immediate vicinity of Pueblo was the one which took 
place on Christmas Day, 1854, when the entire popula- 
tion of the old Pueblo fort was massacred. 

The Utes who occupied the foothills region west of 
Pueblo, had been restless for several days before the 
date above mentioned and had begun wandering away 
from their usual confines out into the valley. Uncle 
Dick Wooten, who lived down at the mouth of the 
Huerfano, had been out on a hunting expedition to the 
Hardscrabble region above Pueblo. Noticing indica- 
tions that an Indian outbreak was imminent, he put 
out immediately for home to make ready for a visit 
from these savages. This was the day before Christ- 
mas, and as Wooten passed the Pueblo fort, he stopped 
and warned its inhabitants not to permit any Utes to 

Eighty-two 



OF THE PUEBLO REGION 

come within the fort. From this place he hastened on 
to his home on the Huerfano to make ready for the ex- 
pected attack. 

Unfortunately, the inhabitants of the fort did not 
take this warning seriously as we shall see. On the 
afternoon of Christmas a single Indian was seen gallop- 
ing his horse up the trail to the fort. Upon his arrival 
he met the men with a friendly greeting and suggested 
to Sandoval, who was in charge of the fort, that they 
set up a target and try their skill as marksmen. San- 
doval, believing that no danger could possibly arise 
from the presence of one Indian within the enclosure, 
permitted him to enter. A target was set up and with 
the entire group of men standing by the shooting began. 
Sandoval fired first and was followed immediately by 
the Indian ; whereupon, two more Utes appeared riding 
up the trail. Upon their arrival they greeted the group 
with a friendly "How" and took their places among 
the other spectators. The next time four shots were 
fired and four Indians appeared. It was evident that 
the firing of the shots was a signal for more Indians 
to appear. The shooting was resumed and in a short 
time the entire band of Indians, fifty in number, had 
arrived and were intently watching the contest. 

Blanco, the Ute chief, requested food for his follow- 
ers, whereupon the entire group entered the fort. Food 
was given them as well as a liberal quantity of "Taos 
lightning." Suddenly, at a given signal the entire band 
of savages fell upon the occupants of the fort and began 
their massacre. 

Against such odds these men were unable to con- 
tend and in a few minutes they were all killed except 

Eighty-three 



PATHBREAKERS AND PIONEERS 

four, one woman, the two sons of Sandoval, seven and 
twelve years old, and one man who was shot through 
the cheek and left for dead. The woman was killed at 
a spring near by as they were leaving the fort but the 
boys were kept as captives, but were finally restored to 
their people after peace was made. 

The Indians passed on down the Arkansas, bent 
on further bloodshed, but finding their other intended 
victims at Wooten's ranch, so well prepared for them, 
they did not risk an attack but returned to their camp 
far into the mountains. 

The old fort remained deserted ever after this 
massacre, the superstition of the roving trappers of 
this region preventing their ever occupying the place 
again. Ghost stories of "hair-raising" type soon sprang 
up around the memories of the old adobe building which 
deterred even the most stout-hearted from ever taking 
up his abode there again. The "dobies" composing its 
walls were removed later, some being used in erecting 
the first buildings in Fountain City, and the remainder 
being placed in the walls of the first buildings of Pueblo 
proper. 

The redoubtable Kit Carson was the chief char- 
acter in an adventure with the Crow Indians which 
occurred in this vicinity some time before the occur- 
rence just described. 

Carson and nine associates were just returning 
from an extended trapping expedition into the north- 
west and had established a camp on the Arkansas near 
the present site of Pueblo to await the return of one 
of their number who had gone on to Taos to dispose 
of their furs. It was late in November when they ar- 

Eighty-four 



OF THE PUEBLO REGION 

rived at the Arkansas and they had no sooner estab- 
lished themselves at this place than a wandering band 
of Crows passed through the vicinity of their camp and 
drove off several of their best horses and escaped under 
the cover of darkness. 

Early the next morning Carson and his band made 
preparations to take up the pursuit of the thieves, but 
the situation was complicated by the falling of a light 
snow during the night and later by a large drove of 
buffalo crossing the already dim trail. With the instinct 
of the born hunter, Carson stuck to the trail and fol- 
lowed it throughout the entire day with the tenacity of 
a savage. Their route lay in the direction of the divide 
where a heavy snow covered the ground. 

As night came on the party camped in the edge of 
a clump of cedars, when preparations were made for 
building a fire for protection against the frosty night. 
They had no sooner began these preparations than they 
perceived smoke arising only a few hundred yards in 
front of them. A careful reconnoissance revealed the 
presence of the Indians whom they were pursuing, ap- 
parently unsuspicious of the presence of their pursuers. 
Not daring even to build a fire, the group made them- 
selves as comfortable as their situation would permit 
and patiently awaited the coming of darkness. 

Under cover of night, while the savages were cele- 
brating their successful escape by giving a war-dance, 
Carson and his men approached stealthily to the vicin- 
ity of the Indian camp and finding their stolen horses 
tethered near by, actually removed them to their own 
camp without being detected. The majority of the 
party was in favor of returning at once to their camp 

Eighty-five 



PATHBREAKERS AND PIONEERS 

on the Arkansas with their recovered property. Car- 
son, however, insisted stoutly that the thieves should 
be punished. His influence prevailed and a bold attack 
at daybreak was agreed upon. Just as light was be- 
ginning to break in the east, Carson and eight of his 
men marched boldly up to the sleeping camp and opened 
fire. Taken by complete surprise, the Indians were at 
first terror-stricken and lost heavily at the first fire, but 
soon rallied and from behind trees and rocks sent forth 
such a galling fire that the attacking party was forced 
to retreat. Being reinforced by one of their number, 
whom they had left in charge of the horses, they made 
another charge but were unable to dislodge the Indians, 
although several of the savages were killed. Back and 
forth they wavered throughout the entire forenoon. 
Finally, however, neither side being able to win, Carson 
and his party withdrew, their only casualty being a 
slight flesh wound, received by one member of their 
party. With their recovered property they took up 
the return march and arrived without further incident 
at their camp on the Arkansas. 

Mr. David Proffitt, who has been a resident of 
Pueblo and other points in Southern Colorado for the 
past sixty years, remembers many lively tilts with 
the Indians which occurred during the time he was 
engaged in freighting from Kansas City to Fort Gar- 
land. His route lay over the Santa Fe trail, through 
Pueblo and south over the Sangre de Cristo pass. The 
adventure which is here given was told the writer by 
Mr. Prof fltt himself and occurred upon one of his home- 
ward trips from Fort Garland. 

For safety three trains had united in making this 

Eighty-six 



OF THE PUEBLO REGION 

journey across the plains, two trains of the Proffitt 
brothers and one belonging to a man named Miller, 
their wagons all being loaded with wool. There was 
accompanying them a man named Spencer, who had 
been permitted to avail himself of the protection of the 
train on his way back to the States. During all these 
journeys their vigilance was never permitted to abate, 
all the men being under strict military regulation. Dur- 
ing this entire journey they were constantly watched 
by marauding bands of Indians. It was a strict rule 
that no person should separate himself from the train 
because of the presence of hostile Indians, but in spite 
of this rule, as they were passing along one day about 
eighty rods from the Arkansas river, it was suddenly 
noticed that Spencer had separated himself from the 
party and was approaching the river for the purpose of 
filling his canteen with fresh water. No sooner was 
his dangerous position discovered than a shot rang out 
and Spencer was seen to fall. The train was halted and 
the call to arms was given, as it was certain that a 
band of Indians was in ambush near by and that an 
immediate attack would probably be made. 

An order was immediately given for a detachment 
of forty men to go to the rescue of Spencer. An arroyo 
extended to within a hundred yards of where Spencer 
lay wounded. Proffitt led the rescuing party safely to 
the point where the arroyo ended and on emerging to 
the open plains the landscape seemed suddenly to be- 
come alive with savages. A large band of savages 
charged the rescuing party while a still larger one at- 
tacked the wagon train, thus hoping to prevent an as- 
sistance from that quarter while they made a desperate 

Eighty-seven 



PATHBREAKERS AND PIONEERS 

attempt to cut off the rescuers from retreat. Proffitt 
and his party fell back to the arroyo and from that 
point sent forth such a terrific fire into the midst of the 
red-skins that they were compelled to withdraw, but the 
retreat was only temporary for in a few moments they 
emerged again and pressed the attack more furiously 
than before. The rescuing party was well nigh over- 
whelmed by the furor of the second attack, one of their 
best men being wounded. It was only through the fear- 
less action of Proffitt, who at the most critical moment 
in the fight bravely mounted the bank and with a six- 
shooter in either hand, began dealing death to his mur- 
derous assailants, that the utter rout of his party was 
prevented. His action gave such courage to his com- 
rades that they succeeded in repelling the second attack. 
As the Indians began to withdraw the party rushed for- 
ward to the place where Spencer lay wounded, and 
found that he had been shot in the hip. Proffitt raised 
him to a sitting posture and had just asked him whether 
he was badly hurt when the wounded man was again 
struck by a bullet which resulted in instant death. 

Their return to the wagon train was even more 
hazardous than their advance had been. A determined 
assault was made upon them — this time by the com- 
bined strength of the savage forces, several hundred in 
number, the attack upon the wagon train having been 
abandoned. At this critical moment, however, the forces 
guarding the train, being relieved by the withdrawal of 
the Indians from that quarter, were able to make a 
flank attack which dealt such destruction to their sav- 
age foes that they withdrew, carrying some forty of 
their dead with them. 

Eighty-eisht 



OF THE PUEBLO REGION 

Another incident which occurred in this same vi- 
cinity and to the same party illustrates the danger to 
which these freighters were constantly exposed. 

The train had halted at the river bank one after- 
noon somewhat earlier than usual. The oxen were 
"turned loose" and the men were taking a swim, their 
usual precautions having been taken to prevent a sur- 
prise by the Indians. It was noticed that a part of the 
oxen had strayed somewhat farther from the herd than 
usual and one of the men, whose name was Reed, started 
after them. Having reached a distance of several hun- 
dred yards from the river, a lone Indian mounted upon 
a pony, suddenly bore down upon him. Reed, being 
unarmed, was at the mercy of his antagonist. As the 
Indian approached nearer preparatory to firing. Reed, 
in desperation, caught up a handful of gravel which he 
threw directly into the face of the pony, causing it to 
swerve suddenly to one side. This caused the savage 
to miss his victim. The Indian turned and bore down 
upon him the second time. Reed had in the meantime 
taken from his pocket a small knife which he threw 
full into the face of his fiendish assailant, striking him 
in the forehead and inflicting a wound which bled pro- 
fusely. Being blinded by the blood from his wound, the 
Indian in his confusion halted his horse for an instant, 
whereupon Reed suddenly caught him by the arm, and 
dragged him to the ground. There ensued a terrific 
struggle for the only weapon, the pistol. Reed proved 
the stronger and wrenching the gun from his antag- 
onist, felled him with one blow upon the head and before 
assistance arrived the Indian had been killed and his 
pony was galloping away across the prairie. 

Eighty-nine 



PATHBREAKERS AND PIONEERS 

In the summer of 1864 there occurred one of the 
most serious Indian outbreaks that this region had yet 
experienced. In fact the uprising was so general as 
to include most of the tribes of Colorado as well as of 
Kansas. Because of the defenseless condition of the 
settlers, the lives of hundreds of families in the region 
extending from Pueblo north beyond Denver, were 
placed in jeopardy. The fighting force of the Indians 
being so much greater than that of the settlers, placed 
the latter at a serious disadvantage. From the foot 
hills almost as far east as the Missouri river, these 
roving bands of savages held sway throughout that en- 
tire summer, while settlers in scattered groups were 
attempting to occupy a narrow strip of territory close 
to the foot hills. These brave-hearted men and women 
were truly "an island of civilization in a vast sea of 
savagery." 

The Indians had planned a simultaneous attack 
along this entire front, hoping to rid themselves once 
for all of the presence of the settlers. To Elbridge 
Gerry, of Revolutionary ancestry, is due the everlasting 
gratitude of the entire frontier populace of the state 
for his timely warning of the impending attack. 

Gerry had lived for many years on the Platte 
river some seventy miles east of Denver with his Chey- 
enne wife, and had enjoyed the confidence of the various 
Indian tribes of that region. One night, long after the 
Gerry household had retired, two Cheyenne chiefs ar- 
rived and warned the occupants that the attack would 
take place on the morrow. The plan was to send one 
hundred warriors to the valley of the Platte, two hun- 
dred fifty to the head of Cherry Creek and about four 

Ninety 



OF THE PUEBLO REGION 

hundred fifty over the divide to Colorado City and down 
the Fountain valley to Pueblo. Upon being informed 
of this intended attack, Gerry immediately saddled his 
swiftest horse and stole quietly away and as soon as he 
was at a safe distance from the house, put spurs to his 
horse, never stopping until he drew rein in front of the 
governor's residence in Denver. Governor Evans, upon 
being apprised of the danger by which the foot-hill pop- 
ulation was confronted, immediately dispatched swift 
couriers to warn the settlers of the impending attack. 

The arrival of this courier in Pueblo caused intense 
consternation. The settlers in the remote districts of 
this region, being notified by couriers sent out from 
Pueblo, hastily loaded their possessions in farm wagons 
and came into town, where they remained until the 
danger subsided. The excitement was greatly aug- 
mented by the information that a band of Indians had 
been seen a few miles above Pueblo on the Fountain. 
An adobe block house was hastily built on Tenderfoot 
Hill and a stockade was erected near Third Street. The 
stockade, which was one hundred ten feet long and 
twelve feet high, was built of logs furnished by Eugene 
Weston, to whom the writer is indebted for the details 
of a part of this incident. School was closed, public 
gatherings were dispensed with and everyone was in an 
intense state of suspense. A squad of men did sentry 
duty day and night and for many days men scarcely 
slept, the attack being momentarily expected. 

But the attack never materialized. The entire plan 
failed, due to the warning sent out by the governor. 
Wherever the Indians planned an attack they found that 
the settlers either were ready to give battle or that their 

Ninety-one 



PATHBREAKERS AND PIONEERS 

houses had been abandoned and their valuables re- 
moved. Only three persons lost their lives in this at- 
tempted wholesale massacre. These persons lived on 
Cherry creek and had for some reason failed to heed 
the warning sent out by the governor. Although the 
general attack failed, the Indians continued on the war 
path throughout the entire summer and until late in 
the autumn. They were brought to terms only after the 
most severe chastisement ever administered this 
"scourge of the prairies," by an enraged populace. 

One of the most fiendish crimes ever perpetrated 
by the savages occurred on the Santa Fe trail, a few 
miles below Pueblo in the late summer of 1864. Jack 
Smith, a half-breed Cheyenne, with a band of Indians, 
attacked a government wagon train on its way up the 
valley. Although the train was being escorted by a 
small group of soldiers, the attack was so fierce and so 
well planned that the entire party was soon over- 
whelmed and captured. Among those taken prisoners 
were a blacksmith, his wife and two boys. The wife 
was compelled to witness the horrible death of her hus- 
band by burning. The two boys were declared to be 
in the way and were killed by being dashed against one 
of the wagon wheels. After being repeatedly outraged 
by her fiendish captors, the woman succeeded in steal- 
ing stealthily from her bed in the middle of the night 
and with a leather thong committed suicide by hanging. 

The government finally, but with inexcusable 
tardiness, authorized the organization and equipment 
of a regiment for one hundred days service for the pur- 
pose of punishing these Indians who had been spreading 
terror throughout the entire Colorado region. Under 

Ninety-two 



OF THE PUEBLO REGION 

this authority the Third Regiment of Colorado Volun- 
teers, with Col. George L. Shoup in command, was or- 
ganized. Company G of this regiment was recruited al- 
most entirely from Pueblo, the following persons being 
officers of the company : 0. H. P. Baxter, Captain ; S. J. 
Graham, First Lieutenant ; Andrew J. Templeton, Sec- 
ond Lieutenant. Among other members of the com- 
pany, the following names have been preserved : Chas. 
D. Peck, Joseph Holmes, John W. Rogers, Jas. O'Neil, 
Abe Cronk, W. W. McAllister, John Bruce, John C. 
Norton, John McCarthy, Wm. H. Davenport, Jessie W. 
Coleman, H. W. Creswell, Henry B. Craig, Joseph W. 
Dobbins, Tom C. Dawkins, A. A. Johnson, L. F. Mc- 
Allister, H. H. Melrose, F. Page and Eugene Weston. 
The company was brought up to its full quota by the 
addition of ten or eleven men from El Paso County, 
and on August 29, 1864, was mustered in at Denver as 
a part of the United States Army. 

Company G was sent into camp at a point about 
five miles east of Pueblo. Here the company was 
obliged to wait two months for equipment. In October 
a snow nearly two feet deep covered the entire southern 
portion of the state. Roads were blocked, traffic ceased 
and all supplies were cut off. The little company of 
volunteers was facing starvation when the order was 
given by the commander to disband temporarily with 
instructions for each man to go to his home to remain 
until the weather would permit the sending of supplies 
to their camp. Within two weeks the roads became 
passable and supplies and equipment were forwarded 
from Denver, whereupon the company were re- 
assembled. 

Ninety-three 



PATHBREAKERS AND PIONEERS 

The main body of troops had been encamped in 
Denver while awaiting equipment from the govern- 
ment. In November the entire regiment under Col. 
John M. Chivington, began moving south from Denver 
and in due time annexed Company G of Pueblo. Their 
course was down the Arkansas, although no one, not 
even the soldiers themselves, knew their destination. 
Leaving Pueblo on November 25, they moved by forced 
marches, allowing but six hours rest out of twenty- 
four, and in three days arrived at Fort Lyon, much to 
the surprise of the garrison at that place. Absolute 
secrecy as to the destination of this regiment had been 
maintained; every person encountered along the trail 
from Pueblo to Fort Lyon had been held a prisoner lest 
the presence of the troops should become known to the 
Indians. 

It was known that the Indians who had been ter- 
rorizing the settlers, had gone into camp some distance 
north of Fort Lyon. It was also believed by many that 
the relations between the garrison at Fort Lyon and 
these Indians was of such character as to preclude the 
hope of securing any assistance from this source in a 
further prosecution of the purpose of the expedition. 
Subsequent events proved the semi-treasonable inter- 
course which had existed between the garrison and the 
Indians as well as the indifference of the commandant 
as to the success of this campaign against the savages. 

Halting only long enough to procure food and 
water the order was given for each man to prepare 
rations for a three days' march and to be ready to move 
at 8 o'clock. Their course was due north and after an 
all-night's march over a difficult trail they came in 

Ninety-four 



OF THE PUEBLO REGION 

sight of a large Indian village just at the break of day. 

The regiment immediately opened fire upon the 
Indians, who fled in panic, but soon concentrated their 
forces along the banks of Sand creek, upon which 
stream the Indian camp was situated. The battle lasted 
from early morning until three or four o'clock in the 
afternoon. The fighting forces of the Indians met al- 
most complete annihilation. In all about 500 Indians 
were killed, while the troops had ten of their number 
killed and forty wounded. 

This, briefly, is an account of the famous Battle 
of Sand Creek. Few incidents in western history have 
been bolstered up by such an array of misstatements 
and absolute falsehood as has this famous engagement. 
Even at the risk of being accused of reviving a con- 
troversy long since settled, the writer can not refrain 
from deviating from the purpose of this chapter long 
enough to state the facts concerning this battle. 

The following statements are based upon a dis- 
cussion of this battle and the events leading up to it by 
Irving Howbert, who presents convincing documentary 
evidence in support of his statements. 

The three chief accusations of the government 
against Colonel Chivington and his troops were that 
they had massacred a body of friendly Indians, who 
were under the protection of the government, that de- 
fenseless women and children were massacred under 
the instructions of Colonel Chivington and that Chiv- 
ington acted without authority in taking such extreme 
measures against these Indians. The facts as presented 
by Mr. Howbert are as follows : 

First, these Indians, far from being friendly, were 

Ninety-five 



PATHBREAKERS AND PIONEERS 

viciously hostile, having been on the war-path the entire 
summer. They had in their possession at the time of 
the "massacre," property identified by some of the 
troops as belonging to residents of Pueblo and El Paso 
Counties. Fresh scalps were found in their tepees, 
some of which were those of women and children. 

Second, there was little, if any unwonted killing 
of women and children, although it was impossible to 
avoid the killing of some of these owing to the fact that 
they were present in considerable numbers during the 
battle, the squaws in some instances taking an active 
part in the engagement. 

Third, Major-General S. R. Curtis himself had in- 
structed Col. Chivington to pursue these Indians re- 
gardless of district boundaries and to wage a war of 
extermination against them. 

It is unfortunate that the so-called investigation 
instituted by the government in connection with this 
battle could not have been carried on in the interests 
of truth and that the right of Col. Chivington to an 
impartial hearing could not have been accorded him. 
Had it been so, the military record of this man, who 
never acted more safely within his rights or more 
nearly according to instructions, would not have been 
left with a cloud hanging over it. 



Ninety-six 



CHAPTER VII. 

THE ROMANCE OF RAILROADS. 

One of the most romantic chapters in the history 
of the West is the one dealing with its railroads. It is 
a story of achievement by great men — men of keen in- 
sight, of prophetic vision — men with unbounded faith 
in the ultimate greatness of the West, whose faith was 
evidenced in many instances by the investment of the 
last dollar of the accumulated funds of a lifetime in 
western railroads. 

From the time in the early fifties when the dream 
of a transcontinental railroad first began to take 
definite form, down to the present time when those 
magic steel bands extend to almost every nook and cor- 
ner of the great west, the story of their progress is as 
attractive and enticing as the most fantastic novel. 

The emigrant had no sooner left his abode in the 
Missouri river region to make his home in this western 
land, than he began to clamor for some regular method 
of communication with friends and relatives whom he 
had left behind. As early as 1849 government stage 
lines were established to form regular routes of com- 
munication with these isolated colonists, but it was 
not until the late sixties that the overland stage as- 
sumed the gigantic proportions which caused it to be 
looked upon as one of the wonders of the western world. 

One of the most interesting episodes in connection 
with governmental attempts to solve the question of the 
conquest of the prairies, occurred in the year 1856, at 

Ninety-seven 



PATHBREAKERS AND PIONEERS 

which time the War Department, then being admin- 
istered by Jefferson Davis, sent one of its representa- 
tives to Arabia for the purpose of purchasing camels. 
The idea was prevalent at that time that the only way 
successfully to cope with the problem of western trans- 
portation was by the oriental method. Under an ap- 
propriation of $30,000 by Congress, seventy-five camels 
were imported and sent to Texas to become acclimated. 
By the next year, however. Congress seemed to have 
outgrown the camel idea, and demanded something 
more speedy than the "ship of the desert." Accordingly, 
the postmaster-general was authorized to call for bids 
to establish a subsidized fast mail service from the 
Mississippi river to Sacramento, What became of the 
camels, history fails to record. 

The first overland mail contract directly to the 
Pacific coast was let to a company headed by John But- 
terworth. Under this contract, the company was to 
maintain a semi-weekly service from St. Louis and 
Memphis to the Pacific coast via Preston, El Paso and 
Fort Yuma, the journey to occupy not more than 
twenty-five days. The company was to receive annually 
from the government, the sum of $600,000. 

On September 15, 1858, stage coaches left opposite 
ends of this newly established line. The distance, which 
was 2,795 miles, was traveled in somewhat less than the 
required time. 

This was but the beginning of numerous stage lines 
which began to penetrate to the remotest sections of 
the newly-discovered West. The discovery of gold in 
the Pike's Peak region soon brought the stage to Colo- 
rado to minister to the needs of the myriads who came 

Ninety-eight 



OF THE PUEBLO REGION 

pouring in. On June 7, 1859, the first stage coach of 
the Pike's Peak Express arrived in Denver, bearing the 
distinguished personage of Horace Greeley, who was 
making a tour of the west in the interests of his paper, 
the "Tribune." 

By the year 1860 the stage company operating 
from Kansas City to Santa Fe began sending some of 
its coaches up the Arkansas into Southern Colorado, but 
constant Indian outbreaks caused this service to be 
suspended at intervals until after the close of the Civil 
War. 

By far the most picturesque outgrowth of this 
overland mail service was the famous "Pony Express." 
In 1860 W. H. Russell, who was connected with the 
Pike's Peak Express Company, startled the country by 
announcing that on a certain date he would begin carry- 
ing letters between St. Joe and Sacramento in nine 
days. The best time that had been made up to this 
date had been twenty-one days. The charge for carry- 
ing letters was to be $5 each for letters weighing two 
ounces or less. The mail was to be carried by pony 
riders, who would make the distance between stations 
with as great speed as possible, the mail being passed 
to another rider, mounted on a fleet pony, who was 
waiting ready to dash on to the next station. Some two 
hundred of these stations were scattered along the route 
at convenient locations. Mere boys were employed as 
riders because of their light weight. Wm. F. Cody, 
"Buffalo Bill," was one of these. He showed his great 
endurance by riding 320 miles without rest. 

The experiment of the "Pony Express" excited 
great interest throughout the country. At the first trial 

Ninety-nine 



PATHBREAKERS AND PIONEERS 

the riders started simultaneously from each end of the 
route, one rider upon a jet black pony of magnificent 
appearance, while the other was mounted upon a white 
one of splendid form. The initial trip was made in 
eight days and four hours, this time being subsequently 
lowered to somewhat less than eight days. 

For a period of eighteen months the "Pony Ex- 
press" continued to render valuable service to the west- 
ern country during the opening stages of the war, but it 
went out of existence with the establishing of the Conti- 
nental telegraph, which was accomplished in 1861. The 
expense of operating this line was so great that it was 
run at a loss from the beginning, the venture bringing 
ruin upon Russell and those associated with him. 

Ben Holiday became the great power behind the 
overland stage business in the sixties, and after dis- 
posing of his interests to the Wells-Fargo Express 
Company, he put his indomitable energy into the build- 
ing of railroads, Mark Twain illustrates Holiday's 
reputation throughout the West as a manager of stage 
lines in the following anecdote : A young man from the 
West was traveling in Palestine and vicinity with his 
teacher. On one occasion he was being told in glowing 
terms of the wonderful skill of Moses who led the people 
of Israel safely through the wilderness for a period of 
forty years, leading them in all a distance of 320 miles. 

"Forty years? Only 320 miles!" said the young 
westerner in astonishment. "Why, Ben Holiday would 
have fetched them through in thirty-six hours." 

Holiday not only conducted the main stage lines 
extending into the West, but he also controlled many 
spurs extending into most of the Rocky Mountain 

One Hundred 



OF THE PUEBLO REGION 

states. He developed the stage business into a huge 
system almost perfect in its mechanism, but the slow 
but sure encroachment of the continental railroad into 
this territory caused him to accept the inevitable and 
dispose of his business before the crash came, for by 
May, 1869 — much earlier than his successors, Wells- 
Fargo and Co., anticipated — the overland stage busi- 
ness was at an end, the last named company losing 
heavily because of its early termination. 

With the completion of the Union Pacific railroad 
there came to an end an institution which constituted 
the greatest business enterprise that the country had 
seen up to that time, many millions of dollars being 
invested in the stage and freighting business. At Fort 
Kearney it is stated that in a period of six weeks, in 
1865, trains comprising in all 6,000 freight wagons 
passed, on their way to the West. Russell, Majors and 
Waddell, during the height of their business, owned 
6,250 wagons and 75,000 oxen. 

After more than a decade of petty quarreling and 
bickering, much of which was due to sectional jealousy 
between the North and the South, Congress finally au- 
thorized the building of a transcontinental railway, 
subsidizing it heavily with public lands. This enter- 
prise was scarcely under way e'er a corporation of 
energetic men was organized in Denver for the purpose 
of building a branch line from that place to Cheyenne, 
the nearest approach of the transcontinental road. 

No group of men ever undertook a project in the 
face of greater discouragement or faced difficulties of 
greater magnitude than did the people of Denver when 
they undertook the building of the Denver Pacific Rail- 
one Hundred One 



PATHBREAKERS AND PIONEERS 

road. The success of the enterprise was finally assured 
by the voting of a half million dollars in county bonds 
and work was begun at the Denver end of the new 
road on May 18, 1868. On June 15, 1870, the first rail- 
road train to enter the Colorado region, steamed into 
Denver. Two months later the Kansas Pacific Railroad 
also completed its line to the same point. 

With the coming of these two roads, a new epoch 
in the development of Colorado was ushered in. Events 
transpired with a rapidity that was astounding. Rail- 
road talk was heard on every hand and new lines were 
projected in every direction from Denver, but with 
such men as W. S. Cheesman, D. H. Moffat, J. B. 
Chaffee and W. J. Palmer and others of like character 
back of these movements, it was not at all surprising 
that many of these projects resulted in substantial 
roads. 

On October 27, 1870, articles of incorporation of 
the Denver and Rio Grande Railway Company were 
filed, the incorporators being W. J. Palmer, A. C. Hunt 
and W. H. Greenwood, the board of directors being 
composed of W. J. Palmer, A. C. Hunt, both of Colo- 
rado, R. H. Lamborn of Philadelphia, U. P. Mellin of 
New York and Thomas J. Wood of Ohio. The capital 
stock was fourteen million dollars, and bonds at the 
rate of ten thousand dollars a mile were issued for con- 
struction purposes. 

The faith, and the almost prophetic vision evi- 
denced by General Palmer and his associates in pro- 
jecting this enterprise and carrying it through to 
completion, is almost beyond belief. The original plan 
of the company was to build a road from Denver to 

One Hundred Two 



OF THE PUEBLO REGION 

El Paso, a distance of eight hundred and fifty miles. 
Although being confronted by financial difficulties 
which were almost insurmountable, and being obliged 
to divide territory and traffic with competing roads, 
the latter fact being unforeseen in the beginning, and 
being obliged to fight almost every inch of the way from 
Pueblo, before the close of the year 1883 the Denver 
and Rio Grande had pierced the chief mountain passes 
of Southern Colorado and New Mexico, and had almost 
reached the western border of the state, its direction 
having deviated from the course originally planned. 

A more unpromising territory for a railroad which 
was to depend upon its immediate earnings for run- 
ning expenses, than that through which this new road 
was to extend south of Denver, could scarcely have been 
found anywhere in the West. There was no town of 
any size along the entire line contemplated by the pro- 
moters, with the exception of Pueblo, and it was re- 
garded as being too far to one side to really be consid- 
ered in the territory to be pierced by the new road, the 
plan being to extend the line directly from Colorado 
City to Canon City and thence to Raton Pass. 

On the 27th of July, 1871, the first rails were laid 
on the new road, and in October of the same year the 
track had been laid to the newly born town of Colorado 
Springs. 

At this juncture the critical moment in the destiny 
of Pueblo arrived. Pueblo had hoped to secure the 
transcontinental Ime of the Union Pacific, and at one 
time it seemed that there was some ground for this 
hope. On July 9, 1869, the Congressional Committee, 
having in charge the preparation of a report on the 

One Hundred Three 



PATHBREAKERS AND PIONEERS 

southern branch, arrived in Pueblo on a tour of in- 
spection. The committee proceeded to Denver from 
this point and from there a part of the committee ex- 
tended their tour to California while the others re- 
turned to Washington. The hope of securing a railroad 
from this source soon faded away into a hazy mist, 
leaving Pueblo to secure railroad connections from 
some other source. 

As was stated in the preceding chapter, a com- 
mercial organization had been perfected for the purpose 
of attracting the Union Pacific railroad to Pueblo. Its 
eastern division had been completed into western Kan- 
sas and there seemed strong ground for the hope that 
the road would traverse the Arkansas valley to Pueblo 
and Canon City. This Board of Trade was organized 
on January 30, 1869, with the following officers : Pres- 
ident, M. D. Thatcher, vice president, George A. Hins- 
dale; B. F. Rockefellow, of Canon City, secretary, and 
Wilbur F. Stone as treasurer. 

On the afternoon of the day on which the com- 
mercial organization was perfected, a mass meeting 
of Pueblo citizens was held in the old court house on 
Santa Fe, where the first campaign was inaugurated 
to secure a railroad for Pueblo. But as has already 
been stated this organization failed to interest the 
Union Pacific in the Arkansas valley route, hence 
Pueblo was obliged to turn her attention elsewhere. 

The opening gun in the campaign to secure the 
Rio Grande Railroad for Pueblo was fired by the Colo- 
rado Chieftain six months before the road had com- 
menced laying rails from Denver. In January, 1871, 
the Chieftain set forth in an admirable manner the 

One Hundred Four 



OF THE PUEBLO REGION 

reasons why a railroad into the Pueblo region would 
be a paying venture. The argument in brief was as 
follows : By situation and natural advantage Pueblo is 
destined to become the chief distributing point for 
Southern Colorado. It is already the business center of 
the rich agricultural and stock regions of the Arkansas, 
the Huerfano, the St. Charles, the Greenhorn, the Cu- 
charas, the Chico and Turkey creek. Pueblo is the 
headquarters of the Southern and Eastern stage lines, 
and Pueblo is the richest county and comprises the most 
thickly settled district south of the divide. 

Soon after this article appeared, agents of the Rio 
Grande appeared in Pueblo and intimated to certain 
citizens of that place that if the county would vote 
bonds and subscribe to a liberal amount of railroad 
stock, the route of the new road would be changed so 
as to include Pueblo. A mass meeting was held at the 
old court house on February 4, 1871, to deliberate over 
the matter. Among the leading citizens of Pueblo who 
were present at this meeting were Hon. Geo. M. Chil- 
cott, Chas. D. Peck, R. M. Stevenson, J. D. Miller, 0. H. 
P. Baxter, M. H. Fitch, P. K. Dotson, M. L. Blunt, J. N. 
Carlile, John A. Thatcher, L. Conley and C. J. Hart. 

There followed in rapid succession a meeting of 
the committee with the railroad officials, the calling 
of another mass meeting, the appearance in Pueblo of 
representatives of the Rio Grande to confer with the 
people, and a proposal from the Kansas Pacific which 
was rapidly completing plans to extend its line from 
the western border of Kansas up the Arkansas valley. 

The appearance of the Kansas Pacific officials in 
Pueblo with a definite proposition to extend their road 

One Hundred Five 



PATHBREAKERS AND PIONEERS 

to this place, seriously complicated the situation. Theirs 
was to be a broad gauge road, while that of the Rio 
Grande was to be of the narrow gauge type. These 
men urged the people of Pueblo to consider carefully 
whether they wished to have direct communication 
with Kansas City or to tie themselves to the Rio Grande 
and thus surrender the destiny of their town into the 
hands of Denver. 

Grave doubts existed in the minds of many as to 
the financial ability of the Kansas Pacific road to ex- 
tend its line into this region, even with the assistance 
that might be rendered by Pueblo. Several weeks of 
discussion ensued, the final result of which was an 
agreement to petition the County Commissioners to call 
a special election for the purpose of voting bonds in aid 
of the Rio Grande project. The proposition presented 
by the officials of this road called for the purchase by 
the county of $100,000 in stock of the company, the 
same to be paid for by 30-year bonds bearing 8% in- 
terest. The road was to be completed to Pueblo within 
one year and a depot was to be established within a 
mile of the court house. 

On June 9 of the same year the election was held, 
which resulted in a large majority in favor of the 
bonds. A total of 679 votes were cast, 576 of which 
were in favor of the bonds. By this act Pueblo County 
committed itself to a policy of bond voting which did 
not end until a million dollars in bonds had been voted 
to aid the various roads that desired to extend their 
lines into Pueblo. Some $450,000 of these bonds went 
by default, however, owing to the failure of some of the 

One Hundred Six 



OF THE PUEBLO REGION 

roads to fulfill the conditions under which the bonds 
were voted. 

On February 1, 1872, a further issue of bonds, 
amounting to $50,000, was voted to aid the same com- 
pany in the construction of a branch line to the coal 
fields of Fremont County. 

Work on the line from Colorado Springs to Pueblo 
was soon begun and in the spring of 1872 the road be- 
gan to approach Pueblo. It is impossible for those of 
later generations to have any adequate conception of 
the feelings of a people when the first railroad reaches 
the land in which they have established their homes. 
On May 30 of this memorable year, the Chieftain con- 
tained the following comment on the near approach of 
the railroad : 

"The track layers are crossing Sutherland's ranch, 
twelve miles north of town, and the rails are said to be 
arriving as fast as they can be spiked down. A large 
water tank is nearly completed at Sutherland's and on 
Monday next trains will come down to that point, leav- 
ing only twelve miles for the stage. Verily, the gap 
grows smaller and beautifully less." On June 19, at 
7 p. m., the last rail was spiked down at the depot near 
the east side of the present Mineral Palace Park, and 
the railroad to Pueblo was an accomplished fact. 

On July 2 a grand excursion from Denver to 
Pueblo was given in honor of the new road, and an im- 
posing reception was held in the new court house, which 
had just been completed. A special train arrived from 
Denver at one o'clock, bearing one hundred ten invited 
guests. From the depot the guests were escorted in 
carriages to the court house, where an elaborate ban- 

One Hundred Seven 



PATHBREAKERS AND PIONEERS 

quet was served by the ladies, music being provided by 
the Pueblo Cornet Band. After addresses, fitting to the 
occasion, had been delivered by G. Q. Richmond, Geo. 
W. Chilcott and Wilbur F. Stone, of Pueblo, and replies 
by some of the Denver delegation, the guests were taken 
on an excursion to the principal points of interest in the 
vicinity of Pueblo. The celebration ended with a grand 
ball at the court house in the evening. 

The readjustment of business and of the customs 
of the people, due to the advent of the railroad, must 
have been remarkable. Having habituated themselves 
to the slow and expensive method of transportation 
which had held sway for so many years, these people 
had well night ceased to travel. During the last year 
the stage was in operation between Denver and Pueblo, 
it carried an average of less than three passengers a 
day, while during the second year that the Rio Grande 
operated between the same points it carried a daily 
average of nearly one hundred people. 

Although the year 1871 had seen the population of 
Pueblo nearly double, the year immediately following 
the advent of the railroad witnessed a veritable boom. 
As noted in a statistical sketch of the town published in 
January, 1873, one hundred seventeen buildings had 
been erected in 1871 at a total cost of $215,750, while 
in 1872 the total number of buildings erected was one 
hundred eighty-five, the total cost being $621,700. 
During the autumn of 1872, the East Pueblo addition 
was laid out by Lewis Conley, who, with about twenty- 
five others, began building operations in that section. 

By far the most important result of the coming of 
the Rio Grande railroad was the founding of South 

One Hundred Eight 



OF THE PUEBLO REGION 

Pueblo. The Central Colorado Improvement Company, 
which was an adjunct of the Rio Grande Railroad Com- 
pany, had purchased a large tract of land lying directly 
south of Pueblo and known as the Nolan Grant. This 
was one of the famous Mexican grants, the title to 
which was guaranteed the owners by the treaty of 1848. 
This grant originally contained some 400,000 acres and 
extended six and a half leagues up the Arkansas from 
the mouth of the St. Charles river, and south to the 
Greenhorn range. In July, 1870, title to 48,000 acres 
of this grant was confirmed by Congress, and the Nolan 
heirs immediately sold the grant to Charles Goodnight 
and others — who, in turn, sold it to the Rio Grande. 
Under the name of the Central Colorado Improvement 
Company, plans were soon begun to place the entire 
tract under irrigation and to divide it into small tracts 
which were to be sold on easy terms to settlers. A 
ditch was surveyed, extending from the western border 
of this grant to its extreme eastern limits. 

In the month of October, 1872, work was begun 
on the first buildings in South Pueblo, and within a 
month some fifteen or twenty houses had been erected. 
The town, as laid out, began immediately south of the 
river and extended far back upon the mesa, the first 
buildings being located on the low ground near the 
river. A vivid description by an eye-witness is quoted 
below : 

"Very quietly, almost imperceptably, without any 
flourish at the hands of real estate owners or speculat- 
ors, a new town has sprung into existence on the south 
side of the Arkansas, and unheralded and almost un- 
thought of, is moving forward to commercial pros- 

One Hundred Nine 



PATHBREAKERS AND PIONEERS 

perity with the force and momentum of an avalanche. 
A few weeks ago the resident of Santa Fe Avenue found 
his vision obstructed only by one or two dwellings on 
the other side of the river. He now is surprised to 
behold roofs of dwellings and broad, well arranged 
streets, while his ears are assailed by the din and clatter 
of saws and hammers ***** 'pjjg gQjj_ 
struction of a branch railway to the coal fields of Fre- 
mont County was the enterprise which awoke to life 
the addition on the south side of the river." 

The second chapter in the railroad history of 
Southern Colorado opened in September, following the 
arrival of the Rio Grande, when the Kansas Pacific, 
organized in Colorado as the Arkansas Valley Railway 
Company, requested a subscription from Pueblo Coun- 
ty to stock in their company to assist in building their 
road from the eastern border of the state to Pueblo. 
Receiving sufficient encouragement from leading citi- 
zens, the Commissioners called a special election to vote 
on the question of issuing bonds. 

At this juncture there appeared on the scene the 
representatives of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe, 
acting in this state under the corporate name of the 
Kansas and Colorado Railroad Company, and proposed 
to build a road to Pueblo and to complete it in much 
less time than was promised by the rival road, where- 
upon there ensued one of the most exciting scenes that 
had ever been enacted in the town. The voting popu- 
lation seemed utterly unable for several weeks to de- 
termine which of the two roads should receive their 
support. Wild stories of Santa Fe money being used 
freely to purchase favor were circulated throughout 

One Hundred Ten 



OF THE PUEBLO REGION 

the entire county, much credence being given these 
stories by the sudden action of the Commissioners in 
postponing the election in behalf of the Kansas Pacific 
road and placing the date for the Santa Fe proposition 
one week before the Kansas Pacific election. The Santa 
Fe proposition was voted upon on January 15, 1873, 
and that of the Kansas Pacific on January 22, and 
greatly to the surprise of every one, both propositions 
carried, thus adding $400,000 in railroad bonds to the 
$150,000 already voted. 

It should be noted at this point that neither of 
these bond issues were ever made, as the Kansas Pacific 
road soon became involved in such financial difficulties 
that it was utterly unable to make any further extension 
of its line and the Santa Fe soon united with the Colo- 
rado and New Mexico Railway, the Pueblo and Salt 
Lake Railway and the Pueblo Arkansas Valley Rail- 
way, and participated in a bond issue of $350,000 which 
had been voted in March, 1874, to the Salt Lake road. 
By this consolidation of the various competitors for 
the Arkansas valley route, the long sought for eastern 
road to Pueblo was assured. The new road was com- 
pleted to Pueblo on February 26, 1876, and formally 
opened on March 1st by monster excursions from Den- 
ver and points in Kansas. 

The Rio Grande road had not anticipated any com- 
petition in the region into which its road was to extend, 
and it looked upon the Santa Fe as an interloper, but 
the latter road soon not only began to plan extensions 
that would parallel the Rio Grande, but that would also 
control the chief mountain passes of Southern Colorado. 
The conflict between these two roads resulted in one of 

One Hundred Eleven 



PATHBREAKERS AND PIONEERS 

the most spectacular, and at the same time most dis- 
graceful railroad wars ever witnessed in connection 
with the building of American railroads. The Rio 
Grande had planned an extension through Raton Pass 
and another through the Royal Gorge, but its wily an- 
tagonist hastily gathered a force of men and secured 
possession of Raton Pass, thus effectually blocking the 
former road. In April, 1878, the Santa Fe began grad- 
ing from Pueblo to Canon City, its intention being to 
parallel the road of its enemy to Canon and also to 
extend its operations far enough into the Gorge to 
prevent the Rio Grande from occupying that important 
pass. 

In some manner the intention of the Santa Fe to 
occupy the Royal Gorge became known to the officials 
of the Rio Grande, who immediately began to take steps 
to prevent it. The Santa Fe, learning that their inten- 
tions had become known to their rival and that steps 
were being taken to thwart their purpose, immediately 
dispatched their chief engineer, William R. Morley, who 
was at that moment at La Junta, post haste to procure 
a force of men and hold the gorge against the enemy. 
Morley secured an engine and made a record breaking 
trip to Pueblo, but upon applying to the Rio Grande 
for a narrow gauge engine with which to continue his 
journey to Canon City, was met with a prompt re- 
fusal. This occurred at 3 a. m., at which time Morley 
also learned that Palmer was ready to send a force of 
one hundred men to the Gorge early that day. Baffled 
in his attempt to secure an engine, Morley at once hired 
a swift horse and started on a forty-five mile race to 

One Hundred Twelve 



OF THE PUEBLO REGION 

Canon City, hoping to arrive there ahead of Palmer's 
men. 

A wild race ensued with odds slightly in favor of 
Morley, owing to his early start, but just before reach- 
ing Canon City his horse fell dead from exhaustion. It 
looked now as if the Rio Grande would win, but the 
intrepid Morley immediately resumed the race on foot. 
He arrived in Canon City where he immediately gath- 
ered a force of one hundred fifty men and rushed them 
to the mouth of the Gorge, where he awaited the coming 
of his disappointed rival. 

The Rio Grande apparently defeated on every 
hand, and having incurred heavy burdens of debt be- 
cause of its southern extension, was on the verge of 
bankruptcy when announcement was suddenly made 
that it had leased its entire system to the Santa Fe. 
The details of the lease were rapidly completed and on 
December 2, 1878, the Santa Fe took possession under a 
thirty year lease. This movement stopped the war but 
immediately started another one. 

It soon became apparent that the ultimate purpose 
of the Santa Fe was to build up the trade of its own 
main line from Kansas City, using Pueblo as a center 
and the Rio Grande lines as feeders. Since this would 
sacrifice the prestige of Denver and seriously cripple 
the development of the Rio Grande, a strenuous re- 
monstrance was filed in court. This was followed by 
a court order requiring the surrender of all the Rio 
Grande property to its owners. 

At this juncture both parties flew to arms, the Rio 
Grande officials demanding the possession of their 
property and the Santa Fe stoutly refusing to sur- 

One Hundred Thirteen 



PATHBREAKERS AND PIONEERS 

render. Judge Bowen instructed the sheriffs located 
at the various points along the Rio Grande, to see that 
the order of the court was carried out. At Pueblo 
the sheriff telegraphed the governor that an armed 
mob had taken possession of the Rio Grande depot and 
had refused to surrender. Governor Pitkin refused to 
take part in the impending war, and instructed the 
sheriff that he must act upon his own discretion. With 
a body of deputies the door of the dispatcher's office 
was forced. Several shots were fired, but no one was 
hurt. A. C. Hunt of the Rio Grande arrived on the 
scene about dark with a force of two hundred men, hav- 
ing secured possession of all Rio Grande property be- 
tween Denver and Pueblo. Hunt proceeded to Canon 
City and soon secured possession of the company's 
property in that place. 

In the meantime the Santa Fe had appealed the 
case to the higher court. 

The events just narrated occurred on June 11th. 
On the 12th of June Judge Hallett reversed the decision 
of the lower court, stating that Judge Bowen had erred 
in issuing the dispossessing order in favor of the Rio 
Grande. He ordered the property restored to the lessee 
and suggested that the only recourse of the Rio Grande 
was to contest the lease. 

It was some time later than this that the suit filed 
in the Royal Gorge case was decided in favor of the Rio 
Grande. After fighting until their strength was ex- 
hausted, these two roads learned the lesson which all 
railroads have learned and found so valuable since that 
time, namely, that co-operation and not competition 
brings the greatest assurance of ultimate success. 

One Hundred Fourteen 



OF THE PUEBLO REGION 

It would be interesting to follow the history of the 
railroad stock owned by the county and to recount the 
various refundings of the county bonds, but space will 
permit but a brief statement concerning this matter. 

On July 1, 1885, bonds to the extent of $225,000 
were refunded at 6%, the original bonds bearing 8%. 
Again, on January 1, 1897, a refunding took place, new 
bonds to the extent of $350,000 being issued ; this in- 
cluded all outstanding indebtedness up to that date. 
This issue of 1897 was again refunded at 41/2^° in 1911, 
thus saving a large amount annually in interest. 

In 1877 the Santa Fe officials approached the Coun- 
ty Commissioners and offered to purchase the stock of 
the Santa Fe Railroad Company, then being held by the 
county to the amount of $350,000, for the cash consider- 
ation of $50,000. The commissioners, through the press, 
gave notice that unless protests by at least fifty tax 
payers were filed with them before a certain date, the 
stock would be disposed of at the price stated above. 
Some 190 tax payers filed a remonstrance, whereupon 
an election was announced by the commissioners for 
April 23, to determine what action the people desired 
the county officials to take in the matter. So unpopular 
did the Santa Fe's proposal become that they requested 
the matter to be dropped without permitting it to come 
to a vote. Charges and counter charges were freely 
made and "fraud" and "swindle" were directed at many 
of those concerned in the attempted sale of this stock 
at a price far below its real value. Shortly after this 
episode the stock was placed on the market, through 
Messrs. Ballou and Co., of Boston, and was sold at 63 
cents on the dollar, $50,000 worth being sold at par. 

One Hundred Fifteen 



PATHBREAKERS AND PIONEERS 

Instead of receiving $50,000, as was originally offered 
by the Santa Fe, the county received a total of $239,000. 

In the course of time there came other railroads to 
Pueblo, attracted thither by the ever increasing carry- 
ing trade of Southern Colorado, but the history of none 
of these contain the romantic elements in such degree 
as characterized the early history of the two roads al- 
ready discussed, nor was their influence upon the de- 
velopment of the Pueblo region as marked as was the 
influence of these earlier roads. 

With the coming of the railroad to Pueblo, came 
also the dimming of the trail. No more would the 
wagon train be seen struggling up the dusty valley or 
across the treeless plains ; never again would the Indian 
have such opportunity for plunder and murder. The old 
has passed away — a new regime is being ushered in, for 
the whistle of the engine resounds down the valley. 



One Hundred Sixteen 



CHAPTER VIII. 

INDUSTRIAL PUEBLO. 

One of the most remarkable occurrences of the 
nineteenth century was the unprecedented growth of 
American cities. At the beginning of that century the 
United States had but six cities of 8,000 inhabitants or 
more ; in 1880, there were 286 and in 1900 the number 
had grown to 545. In 1800, less than four per cent of 
our population lived in cities ; at the present time this 
percentage has increased to nearly fifty. The funda- 
mental causes of this rapid increase in our urban popu- 
lation — ^the substitution of mechanical for muscular 
power, the application of machinery to agriculture, and 
the development of railroads — are such as promise its 
continuance for an unlimited time in the future. The 
most vivid imagination can scarcely conjecture what 
the present century will bring forth in the way of the 
growth of American cities. During the decade from 
1900 to 1910, sixty-three cities in the United States of 
over 10,000 population, increased more than 100 per 
cent in population, while out of more than six hundred 
cities of this class but twenty-three showed any de- 
crease during the same period. In view of these facts 
it behooves every city in the land, our own included, 
to lay broad foundations for the future. 

Pueblo presents an interesting case for the study 
of the development of cities. In the brief space of one 
generation her population has increased from less than 
1,000 to more than 50,000. In the fifteen years from 

One Hundred Seventeen 



PATHBREAKERS AND PIONEERS 

1870, at which time the town was considered as well 
established, its increase in population was 1,700 per 
cent; the next fifteen years saw an increase of 243 
per cent. From 1900 to 1910 the increase was in ex- 
cess of fifty per cent — to be exact, 57.7 per cent, and 
it is extremely probable that the present decade will 
experience an increase even greater than that of the 
previous one. This is a remarkable record when our 
attention is called to the fact that this growth has been 
attended by but very little of "boom" or "wild-cat" 
speculation, such as has characterized the history of so 
many of our western cities. In the face of three serious 
national panics, Pueblo has forged steadily forward, 
never having received a serious set-back during the en- 
tire period. 

The reason for this unusual record of growth has 
its foundation in Pueblo's geographical situation, which 
has brought to the city the most substantial industries 
and the most complete and efficient transportation 
facilities of any city in the entire Rocky Mountain 
region. The story of the industrial development of 
Pueblo is, indeed, a "tale of two cities" — Pueblo proper 
and South Pueblo. In fact, modern Pueblo is composed, 
not of the union of two cities alone, but of four distinct 
municipalities. The present strength of the city is due 
in a great measure to this combination of forces. 

As has already been shown, Pueblo proper had its 
beginning in the spring of 1860, and on the north side 
of the Arkansas. South Pueblo was laid out some 
twelve years later, its first business houses being lo- 
cated in the bottoms near the bluffs, while the first 
residences were erected on the mesa in the vicinity of 

One Hundred Eighteen 



OF THE PUEBLO REGION 

what is now known as Mesa Junction. This town on 
the south side of the Arkansas was incorporated Octo- 
ber 27, 1873. 

There was a large tract of land lying between 
these two towns which, in a sense, was a sort of "no 
man's land." Because of the periodic overflowing of 
the river, this tract was first upon one side and then 
upon the other of the river. It was largely occupied by 
"squatters" in early days, but, as the course of the 
river gradually came to be controlled, this land assumed 
considerable importance and finally a town, Central 
Pueblo, was established and on June 21, 1882, was 
incorporated. 

On March 20, 1886, by a popular vote of the three 
municipalities the union of forces took place. The 
town of Bessemer, which was laid out in 1880, was the 
child of the present Colorado Fuel and Iron Company. 
The town was incorporated in July, 1886, and in March, 
1894, Bessemer was annexed to Pueblo. 

Pueblo, being situated at the head of one of the 
richest agricultural valleys in the state, supplies the 
agricultural wants to a vast population in this valley 
and also ministers to the wants of one of the most ex- 
tensive mining districts of the Rocky Mountain region. 
In its wider aspects, Pueblo is the trade center, not only 
of the entire southern part of the state, but also of New 
Mexico, Arizona, Utah, Wyoming, Western Nebraska 
and Kansas and the northern parts of Oklahoma and 
Texas, comprising a region whose natural resources 
have scarcely been touched and the possibilities of 
whose industrial development is just beginning to be 
realized. 

One Hundred Nineteen 



PATHBREAKERS AND PIONEERS 

The location of Pueblo, in the midst of the greatest 
coal-producing section of the West, assures forever her 
prestige as a manufacturing center. Of the 1,800 
square miles of coal lands in Colorado, the greater 
part is adjacent to Pueblo. When we remember that 
the city is so situated with reference to these coal 
lands, as well as to the sources of all raw materials 
produced in the West, that they may all be hauled to 
Pueblo on a down grade, we easily see what a profound 
influence its location will exert upon its future growth. 
If any other proof is needed of the certainty of the 
brilliant future in store for Pueblo, it is found in the 
fact that it is situated at the gateway of the only 
natural passage in the state, from the Mississippi val- 
ley to the Pacific coast. 

The Honorable William D. Kelly of Pennsylvania, 
an expert on the production of pig iron, delivered an 
address in Pueblo in 1882, which not only illustrated 
his keen insight into the possibilities of Pueblo's loca- 
tion, but also expressed in clear language the basis of 
Colorado's greatness. He said in part, "There are three 
causes which create great and enduring states. First, 
the possession of immense masses of precious metals. 
This it was that called together the people of California, 
Australia and of Colorado when it was announced that 
there was gold at the foot of Pike's Peak. Another, 
that some part of the state and some of the cities shall 
lie on a great line of inter-state travel, and furnish 
points for the exchange of commodities or in plain 
language, have facilities for the establishment of com- 
mercial centers. My third proposition is that the 
possession of the materials for the production of iron 

One Hundred Twenty 



OF THE PUEBLO REGION 

and steel, and adequate fuel and fluxes for working 
them, will give prominence and prosperity to a state." 
A few days later in Leadville, Mr. Kelly stated : "The 
production of iron and steel, and establishment of every 
branch of industry dependent upon the production of 
these metals, may be established more advantageously 
at Pueblo than at any other place I know of on the 
face of the globe." 

A further advantage enjoyed by Pueblo, because of 
her geographical situation, is her most equable climate. 
The city is in a latitude low enough to escape many 
of the extremes of winter temperature and yet not too 
far south to experience the extremes of southern heat. 
As these lines are being penned, although it is in the 
midst of winter, the city has enjoyed an almost un- 
broken winter of sunshine and warmth, while during 
this same period, the entire northern part of the state 
has been in the grip of snow and ice. Comparative 
statistics from the Federal weather bureau indicate 
that there are few cities whose variation from the 
normal in temperature, wind and rain-fall is as slight 
as that of Pueblo. Pueblo's climate has been one of 
the important factors in the development of its in- 
dustries; health and comfort go hand in hand with 
efficiency. 

As has been pointed out in a previous chapter, 
Pueblo's growth dates from the coming of the Rio 
Grande railroad in 1872. Other roads soon saw the 
strategic value of gaining a foothold in this region and, 
within slightly more than a decade, three other roads 
had pierced this territory, making at the present time 

One Hundred Twenty-one 



PATHBREAKERS AND PIONEERS 

four trunk lines, the Denver and Rio Grande, the Santa 
Fe, the Colorado and Southern and the Missouri Pacific 
centering in Pueblo. In addition to these there are 
other local lines radiating from the city. 

This complete railroad system makes possible, not 
only the bringing in of raw materials to our factories, 
but it also provides a perfect system for their distribu- 
tion throughout all local territory as well as to all 
eastern points. Pueblo has grown to be the largest 
railroad center in this western region and receives a 
greater tonnage of freight than is received by any 
city between the Missouri river and the Pacific coast. 
An army of nearly five thousand men, living in Pueblo, 
receive employment from the various railroads entering 
the city. Jay Gould once said of Pueblo : "It holds the 
key to the railroad situation in the West." 

The smelting industry of Pueblo dates from the 
year 1880, when Mathers and Geist erected the first 
buildings of the plant then known as the Pueblo Smelt- 
ing and Refining Company, but now known as the 
American Smelting and Refining Company. Somewhat 
later than this the United States Zinc Company erected 
its plant three miles east of the city and established 
the suburb of Blende. This plant has the distinction of 
being the largest of its kind in the United States. The 
two concerns provide employment for more than a 
thousand men. 

Since the steel industry constitutes the backbone 
of Pueblo's prosperity, it is fitting that more attention 
be paid to it than to other industries of the city. The 
development of the stuponduous industry of steel pro- 

One Hundred Twenty-two 



OF THE PUEBLO REGION 

duction has been so sudden and so spectacular as to 
fairly daze the intellect of him who attempts to grasp 
its significence. Fifty years ago the steel industry, as 
it is known at present, was not even dreamed of. "If 
this unparalleled development had been the result of 
centuries, it would still be wonderful enough ; but it is 
practically the result of one generation's sowing. There 
is not a chapter of ancient history in the Story of Steel. 
Any one who visits the little Pennsylvania town of 
Bethlehem may still see John Fritz, who might almost 
be called the father of the steel mill. In Louisville still 
lives the little white-haired old lady, the wife of William 
Kelly, the original inventor of what is called Bessemer 
Steel."* 

The story of William Kelly, the Irish inventor of 
our present Bessemer process of steel manufacture, is 
the same old story of intermittent success and failure, 
disappointment, bankruptcy, humiliation and final vic- 
tory, that has attended the development of many of 
our most important industries. Interesting though 
the story of steel may be, we must omit that part of it 
which does not have a direct bearing upon the develop- 
ment of that industry in the city of Pueblo. 

The history of the Colorado Fuel and Iron Com- 
pany reads like a romance. The battle between John W. 
Gates and J. C. Osgood, father of the institution, and 
the victory of the latter, the titanic struggle between 
Osgood and E. W. Harriman, a second victory for Os- 
good, but at a terrible cost, are stories that have never 
yet become a part of written history. Osgood, being 



'The Romance of Steel," by Herbert N. Casson. 

One Hundred Twenty-three 



PATHBREAKERS AND PIONEERS 

in desperate straits during the attack of Harriman, re- 
ceived two deliverers v^^ith open arms, but, like the 
Briton of old, these two men, John D. Rockefeller, Jr., 
and George J. Gould, whose assistance he had asked, 
proved to be his Hengest and Horsa, for, although he 
succeeded with their assistance in defeating his an- 
tagonist, he no sooner threw himself free from his grip 
than he found himself overshadowed by his allies, to 
whose influence he was obliged to succumb. 

The present Colorado Fuel and Iron Company had 
its beginning on January 23, 1880, and was organized 
by the same forces that brought the Denver and Rio 
Grande railroad to Pueblo. Foremost among this 
group of men were General William J. Palmer, Robert 
M. Lamborn and William A. Bell. Three small con- 
cerns. The Central Colorado Improvement Company, 
The Southern Colorado Coal and Town Company and 
The Colorado Coal and Steel Works Company, were 
united on the date above mentioned to form the Colo- 
rado Coal and Iron Company, with more coal than iron. 

A. H. Danforth supervised the making of the first 
iron at this place. Work on the plant was commenced 
in February, 1880, although no iron or steel were man- 
ufactured until the next year, the first furnace being 
blown on September 9, 1881. "The foundry and the 
machine, carpenter and pattern shops were the only 
other structures then standing on the site of the now 
Minnequa Works, which was at that time far out on a 
desolate cactus-strewn waste, over two miles from any 
well settled part of Pueblo. April 7, 1882, the first 
steel was made in the converter. About this time, the 

One Hundred Twenty-four 



OF THE PUEBLO REGION 

Colorado Coal and Iron Company started to build the 
puddling mill and nail mills."* 

In the year 1892, a further consolidation of com- 
panies was effected, the result of which was the or- 
ganization of the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company, 
with J. C. Osgood at its head. Osgood was an unusual 
man, and the early success of the new company was due 
in a great measure to his rare ability. His keenness in 
judging men made it possible for him to surround him- 
self by a coterie of business and political advisors of 
unusual merit. The success of this new company soon 
drew the attention of eastern capitalists and precip- 
itated the fight to which reference has already been 
made, and which resulted in the resignation of Osgood. 
No blame seems to attach to any one for Osgood's re- 
tirement ; he simply became overshadowed by his part- 
ners and preferred oblivion to a position of dependence. 
In resigning he declared that he refused to be a "hired 
man, no matter who his employer might he." 

Grave doubt existed in the minds of eastern steel 
men as to the possibility of making steel rails in Colo- 
rado; Osgood's answer to his doubters was the sale of 
an order of rails to the Santa Fe Railroad on condition 
that they be laid in Joliet, in front of the plant of the 
Illinois Steel Company. 

Osgood had selected, as his business associates, 
three personal friends, Julian A. Kebler, Alfred C. 
Cass and John L. Jerome. These men, known as the 
"big four," controlled the destiny of the company for 
a decade, but upon Osgood's retirement, his three 



•"Camp and Plant," of April 30, 1904, published by the C. F. 
& I. Co. 

One Hundred Twenty-five 



PATHBREAKERS AND PIONEERS 

friends and business associates all died within a brief 
space of five months. 

While Osgood's management of the company had 
been along broad and constructive lines, a serious 
handicap had been experienced on account of a lack of 
funds, but with the change of ownership came the un- 
limited backing of the Gould and Rockefeller millions. 

Under this new management, therefore, the Colo- 
rado Fuel and Iron Company began a period of ex- 
pansion which has made of Pueblo the real "work-shop 
of the west," and the end is not yet, for with the un- 
limited resources of this western region and the ever 
increasing demand for iron and steel products, this 
industry will continue to exert a most important in- 
fluence upon the future development of the city. This 
company now employs more than six thousand men at 
the Pueblo plant, and maintains a pay-roll of more than 
a half million dollars a month, to say nothing of the 
vast army of men employed in its coal and iron mines 
throughout the Rocky Mountain region. 

Pueblo possesses fifty or more smaller manufac- 
turing concerns which provide regular employment for 
more than a thousand men throughout the year. Two 
of these establishments deserve more than passing 
notice. The saddle industry in Pueblo has been brought 
to such a high state of perfection as to attract atten- 
tion in foreign countries. Pueblo saddles are being 
shipped throughout various parts of the world. The 
other industry to which reference should be made is 
that of the manufacture of tents. Pueblo tents not only 
reach every part of the United States, but a regular 
trade has been established with the United States Gov- 

One Hundred Twenty-six 



OF THE PUEBLO REGION 

ernment, Mexico and Canada. The Northwest Mounted 
Police of Canada are supplied with Pueblo made tents. 
The total pay-roll of Pueblo amounts to more than a 
million dollars a month. 

Pueblo is the third largest city in a vast region 
comprising nearly 900,000 square miles, being sur- 
passed in population only by Denver and Salt Lake 
City. It is already the greatest railroad center as well 
as the manufacturing center of this region, and is 
destined to become the metropolis in point of popula- 
tion as well as in its industrial strength. The reasons 
for this view are, briefly, as follows : 

The present metropolis of the Rocky Mountain 
region gained its prestige through the creation of a 
temporary and wholly artificial situation in the north- 
ern part of the state. It is shut from the Pacific coast 
by a solid wall of granite more than two hundred miles 
in extent, and for this reason is most awkwardly sit- 
uated, geographically, to be able to maintain its leader- 
ship indefinitely. When the 900,000 square miles of 
territory, comprising the Rocky Mountain region, 
reach a more complete state of development, all arti- 
ficial barriers will be swept away and natural trade 
laws will assert themselves. When this time arrives it 
will be seen that, of the three leading cities of the Rocky 
Mountain region, Pueblo alone has the proper location 
and other facilities to give her the industrial leadership 
of this vast area. 

It is scarcely probable that the present generation 
will live to see the fulfilment of this prophecy, although 
on our western coast events far more improbable have 
transpired within the span of one generation. It is 

One Hundred Twenty-seven 



PATHBREAKERS AND PIONEERS 

also true that New York City was obliged to wait for 
more than a century to be recognized as the metropolis 
of the United States, and after it had been in existence 
175 years its population was but 33,000. Yet there is 
no one now, who cannot easily point out the forces 
which made New York City the metropolis of the na- 
tion. 

In like manner it may require a wait of many gen- 
erations to bring about the readjustment of industrial 
conditions in the West along natural lines. Artificial 
conditions may cause a temporary suspension of the 
laws of nature, but it should be remembered that in the 
end the laws of evolution are inflexible in trade de- 
velopment as well as in other kinds of growth. 

Pueblo is just entering a period of greater growth 
than it has enjoyed at any time during the present 
century. It is probable that the next fifteen years will 
see its population reach the one hundred thousand 
mark, and what the century may bring forth, in the 
way of increased population, no one can guess. 

It has been pointed out by Casson,* as well as by 
McCrary,t that Pueblo's location is unique for beauty. 
Casson writes as follows : "Of all the iron cities of the 
world, Pueblo has the most picturesque location. It 
stands three-quarters of a mile above the level of the 
sea, at the foot of the red crags of the Rockies. Its 
smoke is blown against the hoary head of Pike's Peak, 
fifty miles northward. To the east stretch a thousand 
miles of level field and mesa, across which come five 
busy railroads." From McCrary's report we read that, 



*"Romance of Steel," by Herbert N. Casson, p. 318. 
t"The Pueblo Improvement Plan," by Irvin J. McCrary. 

One Hundred Twenty-eight 



OF THE PUEBLO REGION 

"Pueblo's site is a picturesque one at the junction of 
the Arkansas and Fountain rivers. Unlike most cities 
of the plain, the face of the earth here has a good many 
bumps, which prevent monotony through the city, and 
which are at once the city's great assets for beauty." 
A definite opportunity presents itself to Pueblo, on 
the eve of its greater development, for laying the foun- 
dations of a great city along modern lines. It has been 
a cause for keen disappointment to those now occupying 
our large cities that the past generation failed to plan 
definitely for the greater growth of these cities, as well 
as to regulate and direct their development along lines 
that would result in a higher degree of civic beauty as 
well as greater comfort to those now occupying them. 
Pueblo must not make this mistake. The present gen- 
eration faces the opportunity now, of inaugurating a 
system of civic improvements in this city which will 
not only attract people from all over the country, but 
will also cause future generations to "rise up and call 
them blessed." 



One Hundred Twenty-nine 



CHAPTER IX. 

PUBLIC EDUCATION IN PUEBLO. 

When one views the progress made by our Amer- 
ican public schools in the last fifty years, he stands 
amazed that an institution of such magniture and 
possessing such a high degree of efficiency could be 
developed in so brief a time. True, the origin of our 
free public schools dates farther back than fifty years 
ago, but it is equally true that it has been much less 
than fifty years since our free schools seriously set 
themselves at the task of educating the public. 

If any one should have prophesied, at the close of 
the Civil War, that in fifty years every city of three 
thousand or more inhabitants in the United States 
would have a college which every young person in the 
community might attend without cost, he would have 
been declared insane, but this is exactly what has trans- 
pired. Today, every young person in this broad land, 
who lives in a city large enough to support a modern 
high school, has an opportunity to secure an education 
equal to that offered by the colleges of fifty years ago. 
Such historic institutions as Harvard, Princeton and 
Yale, whose work has always been above high school 
grade, should be excepted from this comparison. 

In this brief space of time an equal advance has 
been made in elementary schools. Fifty years ago 
it was assumed that any one was qualified to 
teach in elementary grade. It was quite the cus- 
tom to give the school, which was usually conducted 

One Hundred Thirty 



OF THE PUEBLO REGION 

for three or four months during the winter, to most 
any needy person in the community — the chief require- 
ment being that he be needy. Less than a quarter of 
a century ago the writer taught in a middle western 
state with an education equal to not more than that 
offered in a sixth grade at the present time. How dif- 
ferent do we find the situation today, when practically 
every youth in this great nation is under the instruction 
of a trained teacher, selected because of his special 
qualifications for educational work. 

In other features of educational work the progress 
has been equally marked; this is particularly true of 
two features, namely the equipment of school buildings 
and the wide range of subjects taught. When we add 
to this the movement of our state universities in bring- 
ing a real university to the various sections of the 
country, the statement, made in the opening sentence 
of this chapter, is justified, that one "stands amazed" 
at the magnitude and high degree of efficiency of our 
system of public schools. 

The history of the development of the public 
schools of Pueblo, were it to be written, would contain 
all that is remarkable and wonderful in the develop- 
ment of our American public schools at large. Be- 
ginning in a one-room cabin of small dimensions, there 
have been developed in the city of Pueblo, within one 
generation, two of the most efficient school systems to 
be found anywhere in the West. A few persons are yet 
living in Pueblo who have witnessed the evolution of 
our schools from their embryonic stage back in the 
early sixties. These schools represent the flower of 
which the little cabin on Santa Fe Avenue was the seed. 

One Hundred Thirty-one 



PATHBREAKERS AND PIONEERS 

In every American community there has been a 
definite order in which its institutions have been es- 
tablished ; first the general store and the lodging house, 
and after these the school and the church, established 
either simultaneously or one at a time, in the order 
named. This chapter makes no pretense of giving a 
complete history of the Pueblo schools, but is rather a 
record of their early development. 

One of the first legal acts of our board of county 
commissioners, at their first meeting, held on February 
17, 1862, was the levying of a tax of one-half mill for 
school purposes. The income derived from a half-mill 
tax in Pueblo county at that time was very small— 
too small in fact to make possible the opening of a 
school without other assistance. The first school build- 
ing which was erected, therefore, was paid for largely 
by private subscriptions. 

This building was completed and ready for use in 
the fall of 1863. Its location was on Santa Fe Avenue, 
about where the rear end of the building at 421 North 
Santa Fe now stands. It is stated, by one who attended 
school in this building, that it was a frame structure 
about sixteen by twenty feet. This diminutive building 
served the community for all school purposes until the 
erection, in the year 1869, of the "Adobe School," at 
Eleventh and Court streets. Two members of the first 
board of education were Jack Thomas and Captain 
Wetmore; the name of the third has been lost in the 
hazy mists of the past. 

The person having the distinction of being the 
first school teacher in Pueblo, was George Bilby. Mr. 
Bilby came to Colorado in the late fifties and was, by 

One Hundred Thirty-two 



OF THE PUEBLO REGION 

occupation, a miner, having taken an active part in the 
California Gulch excitement in 1860. He spent practi- 
cally all of his life in Pueblo county, being at one time 
under sheriff and again, city marshal. Mr. Bilby has 
a son, George F. Bilby, and two daughters, Mrs. Ollie 
Stewart and Mrs. Clara Barr, who still reside in 
Pueblo. 

Among those who attended school in this first 
building, the following are still living in Pueblo: 
M. Scott Chilcott, P. T. Dotson, Jeff Steel and H. E. 
Steel. Some interesting and exciting accounts are 
given by Mr. Bilby's "scholars" of their teacher's abil- 
ity in wielding the rod. There is a rumor also to the 
effect that some of his pupils objected so strenuously 
to his castigations that certain articles of school fur- 
niture were badly demolished e'er the question of 
mastery was settled. 

The summer of 1864 was an interesting one for 
the school. Miss Clara Weston, a sister of Eugene 
Weston for many years a resident of Pueblo, was 
employed to teach a summer term. She, with her sister, 
lived at the home of A. A. Bradford, on the east side 
of the Fountain river. Miss Weston adopted a method 
of crossing the river which, to present day members 
of her profession, would be pronounced at least unique. 
For four months this young teacher removed her shoes 
and waded that stream twice a day in going to and 
from school. Since there was no bridge, the only other 
method was to cross on horse back, but in true pioneer 
style Miss Weston resorted to the primitive method. 

During this summer, the school was closed for 
several weeks, owing to a threatened attack by the In- 

One Hundred Thirty-three 



PATHBREAKERS AND PIONEERS 

dians. At this time practically every woman from 
Beaver creek on the west, to a point twenty-five miles 
below Pueblo, was crowded into the stockade built for 
the defense of the populace. A serious salt famine oc- 
curred at this juncture, the situation finally being 
relieved by securing a quantity of this indispensable 
article, the price paid being a dollar a pound. 

Miss Weston, now Mrs. McCannon, is still living, 
her home being in Denver. Among others who taught 
in the old building were George Peck and E. A. Jam- 
ison. 

It was during this early period that some of the 
more serious difficulties of the district occurred. A 
county superintendent absconded with school funds to 
the amount of $652.97, which amount was collected 
from his bondsmen, N. Paquin and G. M. Chilcott. 

In 1866, C. H. Kirkbride filed his bond with the 
county commissioners as the first county superintend- 
ent of schools, and in that same year School District 
Number One was organized. It should be remembered 
that it was several years after the organizing of the 
first school before it became necessary to extend the 
school system beyond the settlement at Pueblo. The 
income from the school tax continued small. We note 
from the county records in 1868 that the tax levy for 
school purposes was five mills, and that it yielded an 
income of $2,043.78. If we assume that the assessed 
valuation of property in 1862 was as great as in 1868, 
we see that the first school tax levied would have 
yielded an income of barely more than $200. It was 
not probable that the valuation at this earlier date 
would have been half as great as in 1868, hence the 

One Hundred Thirty-four 



OF THE PUEBLO REGION 

income with which to inaugurate the school system of 
Pueblo in 1863 amounted to the munificent sum of $100 
or less. 

The school report, which is given below, tells more 
of the early school on Santa Fe Avenue than it would 
be possible to give in an entire page of description : 

"Report for the week ending Friday, December, 
18, 1868. 

The following were constant and punctual in at- 
tendance at school for the week ending, Friday, Dec. 
18, 1868: 

Olivia Waggoner John Waggoner 

Sarah Waggoner Charles Shaw 

Alice Allen James Rice 

Emeline Shaw Ambrose Bradford 

Frances Burt Charles Hinsdale 

Douglas Wetmore Frank Davis 

Max Dickerman Adolph Nathan 

Florence Allen Lewis Nathan 

Nettie Allen 

Average daily attendance 39 

E. A. JAMISON, Teacher."* 

By the year 1869 the school population had in- 
creased to such extent as to require the erection of a 
larger school building. Accordingly, a site was pur- 
chased at Eleventh and Court streets upon which the 
adobe building was erected and for twenty years it 
occupied the south-east corner of the block upon which 
the Centennial building now stands. Before the erec- 



*Quoted from the Colorado Chieftain, of Dec. 24, 1868. 

One Hundred Thirty-five 



PATHBREAKERS AND PIONEERS 

tion of this building the old Methodist church, which 
still stands at the corner of Seventh and Main streets, 
had been rented for school purposes, the board paying 
$15 a month for its use. This school building was com- 
pleted in March, 1871. 

The complete itemized report of the erection of this 
building was published by the school board in the Chief- 
tain under the date of April 30, 1871, and contains 
items of sufficient interest to warrant its publication in 
full. The report is as follows : 

Amount paid for south half of Block 20, $100 ; 

deed $3 $ 103.00 

P. Craig's bill, stone for foundation 180.00 

Do. sand, etc 15.75 

Lewis Conley, plan for house 25.00 

Mariana Gormez, making adobes 207.00 

R. N. Daniels, lime 35.00 

G. B. Schidmore, lime 15.30 

Z. G. Allen, laying foundation and walls 540.00 

Do., material furnished 28.25 

M. Huese, hauling sand 8.00 

Eichbaum & Co., for water 8.80 

Gomer, for lumber 885.53 

Ferd. Barndollar & Co., lumber 190.00 

Thomas Owen, carpenter's bill 875.00 

Thatcher Bros., material furnished 102.28 

Jacob Schipper, painting and glazing 60.00 

William Edmundson, plastering 218.39 

Steinberger & Co., paints and oils 18.80 

H. E. A. Pickard, brick for chimney 6.30 

Stove for school house 30.00 

One Hundred Thirty-six 



OF THE PUEBLO EEGION 

E. M. Smith, for building privy 28.50 

Do., leveling yard, etc 16.00 

Benches and fasteners for windows 11.75 

$3,563.65 
Bal. Due $963.30 

This building consisted of two rooms and stood 
facing east. In striking contrast to the more modern 
and expensive furnishings of school rooms, is the item 
referring to the expense for benches for a two-room 
building. 

The item of $8.80 for water will recall to the 
minds of pioneers, Pueblo's water system prior to 1874. 
All family and other regular consumers of water were 
provided with barrels for receiving water from the 
water wagon, which made regular daily trips much the 
same as our milk wagons do at the present time. The 
water was taken directly from the Arkansas river with 
perfect fearlessness for, as some one has remarked, 
"there were no germs in those days." 

The board of education, under whose direction this 
building was erected, was composed of M. G. Bradford, 
P. Craig and C. G. Allen. Among other members of 
the various boards of education during the early period, 
the following names have been handed down: L. R. 
Graves, H. C. Thatcher, D. Sheets, Eugene Weston and 
Charles Peck. The early teachers in this building 
were Mrs. E. S. Owen, Mrs. S. J. Patterson, Mrs. Wil- 
liam Ingersoll, Miss Hillock and Miss Lottie Meyer. 
The salaries for teachers in those days ranged from 
$75 to $80 a month. 

One Hundred Thirty-seven 



PATHBREAKERS AND PIONEERS 

No sooner had this building been completed, than 
additional quarters were required to house the increas- 
ing school population, a building on Main Street being 
rented for this purpose. This adobe building continued 
to serve as a part of the growing school system of Dis- 
trict Number One until 1889, when it was torn down. 

The next step in the development of Pueblo's 
schools was the organization of District Number 
Twenty, in South Pueblo. This new town, which was 
laid out in the autumn of 1872, was growing with 
great rapidity and immediate steps were taken to erect 
a school building. It was largely through the activity 
of Alva Adams, now one of our honored ex-governors, 
that this new district was organized. 

The first school building was erected in 1873 on 
South Union Avenue, on the top of the bluff directly 
north of the McClelland Library. It was demolished 
and removed only a few months ago to make room for a 
gravel pit. The first teacher in District Twenty was 
Mrs. William Ingersoll, known at that time as Miss Lou 
Stout. This building being located on the bluff, was 
difficult to approach. Mrs. Ingersoll recounts many a 
scramble in stormy weather to reach the heights upon 
which South Pueblo's educational center was situated. 
Following Mrs. Ingersoll came Theodore F. Johnson, 
now Dr. Johnson of California, who was a boyhood 
friend of ex-Governor Adams, and who came to Pueblo 
at the latter's invitation. 

This building served the needs of the district until 
1882, at which time a new building, the Central, was 
erected. This was South Pueblo's first high school, and 
was opened in 1883, with C. W. Parkinson as principal. 

One Hundred Thirty-eight 



OF THE PUEBLO REGION 

The next year, Mr. Parkinson was elected the first su- 
perintendent of schools of South Pueblo. In addition 
to Mr. Parkinson, the following persons have served 
as superintendents in the past thirty-three years : F. B. 
Gault, P. W. Search, H. E. Bobbins and J. F. Keating 
who for almost a quarter of a century has superintend- 
ed the educational interests of District Number Twenty, 
and has brought the schools of this district to their 
present high state of efficiency. 

The first class graduated from Central High School 
in 1886. Many members of this class of '86 are well- 
known residents of Pueblo. The class was composed 
of the following persons : Grace Guernsey, Ralph Jones, 
Clara McCann, Alice McDonald, Charles McVay, Har- 
lan Smith, Mable Stonaker, Nannie Walker and Frank 
Young. 

A fact which is well worth recording in connection 
with the development of the schools of District Number 
Twenty and which illustrates the progressive spirit 
which has always dominated the board of education of 
that district, relates to the introduction of manual 
training into the schools. In 1889, this course was 
established in the Central building. District Number 
Twenty being the first school district west of the 
Missouri river to introduce manual training as a part 
of the curriculum, with the exception of the city 
of Omaha, where it was introduced at the same 
time as in Pueblo. Two of the wood lathes form- 
ing a part of this original equipment are still in a 
good state of repair and are being used in the manual 
training department in the new Central High School. 
Another fact worthy of mention concerns the tenure of 

One Hundred Thirty-nine 



PATHBREAKERS AND PIONEERS 

office of two members of the board of education of this 
district. W. L. Graham recently resigned from the 
board with a record of twenty-four years of continuous 
service, while Dr. R. W. Corwin will have served con- 
tinuously for a somewhat longer period upon the com- 
pletion of his present term of office. 

The story of the erection of the Centennial build- 
ing in District Number One is of more than ordinary 
interest. In 1874, the question of a new school building 
was brought before the people, in the form of a pro- 
posal to issue $30,000 in bonds for the purpose of 
erecting a modern school building. It should be re- 
membered that at this time the town was experiencing 
a rapid growth, owing to the recent coming of the Rio 
Grande railroad. For some time prior to this date a 
building on Main Street had been rented for school 
purposes. 

The bonds were voted by the district and were sold 
at twenty per cent below par. The board of education 
was composed of Judge Wilbur F. Stone, Col. I. W. 
Stanton and Sam McBride. The building was well 
on the way to completion when the board was sud- 
denly apprised of the fact that their treasurer, Sam 
McBride, had absconded with more than $14,000 of 
money belonging to the district. 

This was a serious blow to the enterprise which 
had been undertaken by the community, and it was 
only through the heroic efforts of the board of educa- 
tion that it was made possible to complete the building. 
Bills were falling due, labor must be paid for, and still 
more bills must be incurred in the completion of the 
building. In the face of all this, the treasury was 

One Hundred Forty 



OF THE PUEBLO REGION 

empty. The difficulty was finally bridged over by 
issuing interest-bearing warrants, payable in one, two 
and three years. In this manner the building was com- 
pleted in 1876 and was named Centennial. 

The district was unable to collect from the bonds- 
men of the absconding treasurer because of some tech- 
nical flaw in the bond, the entire loss to the district 
being $14,392.32. 

The Centennial building was built of brick and 
contained eight rooms. It was looked upon as the most 
up-to-date school building in the state. School was 
opened in this building in the autumn of 1876, with 
Isaac Dennitt as superintendent of schools and prin- 
cipal of the new building. Mr. Dennitt served as 
superintendent until 1879, when he accepted a position 
at the state university. Mr. Dennitt was succeeded by 
J. S. McClung, who has had a remarkable career as city 
superintendent, serving for a period of twenty-six 
years continuously, with the exception of a few months 
in 1887, during which time Judge J. H. Voorhees acted 
as superintendent. During Mr. McClung's administra- 
tion of twenty-six years, the foundation of a broad 
educational system was laid, and when in 1905 this en- 
ergetic superintendent passed on the reins of govern- 
ment to his successor, no more efficient system of 
schools could be found anywhere in the West than the 
schools of District Number One. The following persons 
have held the office of superintendent since that time : 
George W. Loomis, Milton C. Potter and Frank D. 
Slutz, the present superintendent. 

In 1878, the school census showed 449 children of 
school age within the district, the appropriation for 

One Hundred Forty-one 



PATHBREAKERS AND PIONEERS 

school purposes being $2,126.26. East Pueblo com- 
prised what was known as District Number Nineteen, 
but in 1879 this district was added to District Number 
One, thus increasing the school population to 720. The 
amount expended for teachers' salaries in 1880 was 
$675 a month. This amount seems insignificant when 
compared with the monthly budget for the same pur- 
pose at the present time. 

In June, 1884, occurred the first graduation from 
Centennial High School. The Chieftain of that date 
published a full account of this first graduation ex- 
ercise ever held in the city. This was back in the time 
when custom required each graduate to deliver an ora- 
tion. Many of the names of the members of this class 
are familiar to a vast number of Puebloans at the 
present day. Following is a list of the graduates, with 
the subject chosen for the commencement oration: 
Loren M. Hart, "Growth"; Geniveve Hinsdale, 
"Germs" ; Nellie Corkish, "Old Wine in New Bottles" ; 
John W. Collins, "The Coveted Goal"; Ella Hart, "Nota 
Bene", (Mark Well) ; Ella Shepard, "The Marble Wait- 
eth" ; Rebecca Nathan, "Dangers of the Republic." 

The exercises were held at the First Baptist 
Church, the address to the graduating class being de- 
livered by Judge Wilbur F. Stone, who was then living 
in Denver. During the course of his remarks he an- 
nounced that he would offer a prize of ten dollars for 
the best poem written by a student of Centennial. 

District Number One, like her neighboring district 
beyond the river, has been extremely fortunate in the 
selection of her superintendents, there having been but 

One Hundred Forty-two 



OF THE PUEBLO REGION 

five different persons appointed to this office during a 
period of more than forty years. 

The public schools of Pueblo are today looked upon 
by impartial educators as standing for all that is sound 
and at the same time progressive in the educational 
world. The only step required to place them in the fore 
front as the leader in public education in the entire 
Rocky Mountain region, is the union of the two dis- 
tricts. 



One Hundred Forty-three 



CHAPTER X. 

AROUND THE CAMP-FIRE. 

One who chronicles the leading events of a people, 
a state, or a nation, is said to have written their history. 
Those who have read the chronicle of these events be- 
lieve that they are acquainted with the people whose 
history they have read. This is far from the truth. To 
know a people it is necessary to brush elbows with them 
off the stage — behind scenes — between the acts. The 
real life of a people is composed not of events, but of 
incidents. 

An attempt is made in this chapter to record a few 
of the many incidents which gave color to a life that 
would have been dreary and colorless without them. 
The most interesting and important of these incidents 
occurred in the struggle of those orderly and peace- 
loving pioneers to establish good government. The 
West had more than its share of "undesirable citizens" 
— especially of that class who were obliged to seek a 
change of climate "for their health." It was the pres- 
ence of this class of refugees that made the problem of 
government a serious one. Those organizations known 
as "peoples* courts" and "miners' courts," which sprang 
up in every frontier settlement, administered justice 
with a strong arm, and being unhampered by any legal 
technicalities, made the miscarriage of justice almost 
impossible. The only escape of the wrong-doer lay 
either in flight or fight, for if he was once apprehended 
his fate was sealed. It sometimes occurred that a 

One Hundred Forty-four 




MRS. CLARA McCANNON 

(Miss Clara Weston) 

One of Pueblo's Early School Teachers 



OF THE PUEBLO REGION 

desperado of the Charley Dodge type, whom we shall 
describe presently, would be successful in holding the 
entire forces of law and order at bay for quite an ex- 
tended period. 

The penalties of these "courts" were few in number 
but were inflicted without mercy. For serious crimes, 
such as horse stealing or highway robbery, the penalty 
was death, while for crimes of a less serious nature 
the culprit was often banished from the settlement 
and forbidden to return on pain of death. These 
"courts" administered justice in their crude way in our 
frontier towns for quite an extended period in many 
sections before the regular governmental machinery 
could be put into operation. There were no "palatial 
halls of justice," in those days, the court more often 
convening on a street corner or in a saloon. One of the 
most serious cases ever handled by a "people's court" 
had its hearing in the back yard of a hotel, with the 
chief actors sitting upon the wood-pile. 

One feature of these "courts" which distinguished 
them from regular tribunals of justice was that men 
were permitted in a great measure to settle their own 
disputes and difficulties with their fellows. If in the 
course of settling a controversy it became necessary 
for one person to shoot the other, no action was taken 
by the "court," provided public opinion justified the act, 
hence every man was in a large measure the defender 
of his own rights. 

A BATTLE WITH "MISSOURIANS." 

One of the first incidents in this region that re- 
sulted in bloodshed occurred in the fall of 1859. The 

One Hundred Forty-five 



PATHBREAKERS AND PIONEERS 

settlers of Fountain City had raised their first crop of 
corn and were in high spirits over the prospects of its 
sale at a price ranging from $6 to $8 a bushel, when 
one evening there appeared in the town a group of Mis- 
sourians on their return journey from the Cherry creek 
region. Being disappointed because of their failure to 
make a stake in the gold region, they were in just the 
proper mood for trouble. Noticing the fine corn field 
nearby they immediately unyoked their twelve hungry 
oxen and turned them into the corn field, refusing to 
give any heed to the remonstrances of the owners. The 
settlers, being unable to prevail upon the ruffians to 
desist, gave fair warning to them and then opened fire. 
A lively battle ensued in which several of the 
Missourians were killed. The oxen were finally rounded 
up and driven into a corral by the irate citizens, where 
they were held until ample damages were paid for 
destruction to their crop. The defeated Missourians 
were allowed to remain over night, being kept under 
heavy guard and the next morning were piloted out 
around the base of old "Sugar Loaf" hill and sent down 
the trail, a wiser but sadder group of men. 

THE DOINGS OF CHARLIE DODGE. 

One of the most noted desperados of the Pueblo 
region was Charlie Dodge. Charlie "was small of 
stature — touch as gentle as a woman's, of pleasing ad- 
dress, an eye which seemed to penetrate in all directions 
at once. He could never be caught off his guard. True 
to his friends, he observed his word with a sacred re- 
gard, but when he made up his mind to kill, the deed 
was performed without compunction of conscience. He 

One Hundred Forty-six 



OF THE PUEBLO REGION 

killed no less than three men in Pueblo." His first 
exploit occurred while returning from California Gulch. 

Charlie and his "pal," on their way to Pueblo, 
overtook a miner who was returning to the states with 
a fortune in gold dust which he had made in the mines. 
Although the man was well armed, he was captured and 
hanged and his fortune confiscated by the two des- 
peradoes. His dead body was then cut down and 
dragged by a lariat a quarter of a mile down the river, 
where it was thrown into a ditch and covered with a 
small amount of dirt, the toes of his boots being visible 
to passers-by throughout the winter. 

Charlie soon arrived in Pueblo, where he shot the 
Mexican marshal named Taos on account of a fancied 
insult. He soon jumped a claim at the old Goldsmith 
ranch just east of Pueblo, then owned by a man named 
Fred Lentz. Dodge sold the claim to a third party, 
whereupon Lentz laid the matter before the People's 
Court at Pueblo. Returning from town on this day, 
Lentz was met by Dodge and Bercaw, his associate. 
Dodge immediately opened fire upon Lentz, shooting 
him five times in the back, although Lentz had thrown 
up his hands and surrendered. As Lentz's friends 
raised his head from the pool of blood in which he was 
lying, he looked at Dodge and said, "Charlie I call this 
taking advantage of a man." Dodge merely replied, 
"Oh well, never mind. Die like a man." In a few mo- 
ments Lentz was dead. 

Dodge and Bercaw gave themselves up, but in this 
instance the People's Court was unable to measure up 
to the occasion. The two men stood trial with their 
six-shooters on their laps. When a vote on the fate of 

One Hundred Forty-seven 



PATHBREAKERS AND PIONEERS 

the prisoners was called for not one person was found 
willing to risk his life by voting "guilty." Thus, "six- 
shooter logic" dominated over justice. The grand jury 
later indicted Dodge for this crime, but no one could 
be found who would attempt to arrest him. Dodge 
moved westward to escape the advance of civilization. 
He finally died of smallpox at Fort Hall, Washington. 

"TEX AND COE." 

A settler living up the Fountain river had three 
fine horses stolen. He secured the services of Templeton, 
the noted trailer and thief hunter, and these two after 
trailing the thieves almost to Pueblo, lost the trail. Com- 
ing on into town they learned that during the night two 
men had attempted to force their way across the Toll 
Bridge over the Arkansas. They were halted, however, 
and compelled by the vigilant owner to pay the usual 
toll before being allowed to proceed. Templeton feeling 
sure that these were the men for whom they were 
searching, immediately took up the trail and after rid- 
ing for several hours in a southerly direction overtook 
the two men with the stolen horses. The men begged 
piteously to be allowed to go on their way by sur- 
rendering the horses, but in spite of their plea they 
were handcuffed and compelled to return with their 
captors. 

On account of the lateness of the hour when they 
arrived in Pueblo, they secured permission to lodge 
their prisoners in the town jail. About eleven o'clock 
that night the two men appeared and asked possession 
of their prisoners, saying that they had decided to con- 
tinue their journey during the night as it would be 

One Hundred Forty-eight 



OF THE PUEBLO REGION 

cooler. The prisoners were turned over to them as 
requested and the quartet disappeared. The next morn- 
ing the inhabitants of Pueblo were horrified to discover 
the bodies of the two thieves hanging to a telegraph 
pole not far from the jail. 

It was learned that these two men were the noted 
desperadoes "Tex" and "Coe," who had been operating 
in Southern Colorado for an extended period prior to 
this time. 

"JUAN CHIQUITO." 

One of the interesting characters of the Pueblo 
region in early times was Juan Trujillo, who, because 
of his diminutive stature, was called Chiquito, meaning 
"small." Juan was a Mexican of unsavory reputation 
and had lived in the vicinity of Fountain City long be- 
fore any Americans had taken up their abode in that 
place. He was described to the writer by an old 
freighter, who first knew Chiquito in the fall of 1859. 
The old Mexican was at this time in temporary retire- 
ment, because of a wound which he had received in an 
encounter over some horses which he had stolen. He 
was dark of skin and of sullen disposition and was 
looked upon as an outlaw by those who knew him. 

Juan Chiquito gained fame and the everlasting ad- 
miration of the more gallant of the populace of Foun- 
tain City by an incident in which he was the chief actor. 
It seems that he had been attracted by a young damsel 
living at the Mexican settlement at Doyle's ranch on 
the Huerfano, and not being received kindly by her 
parents, had been in the habit of meeting her in a 
clandestine manner. It was finally agreed by these 
two lovers that Juan should meet her at a certain time 

One Hundred Forty-nine 



PATHBREAKERS AND PIONEERS 

at an appointed spot and would bear her away on his 
pony to his adobe hut on the Fountain. 

Their plans were consummated according to sched- 
ule, but the eloping lovers were no sooner on their way 
than their purpose was discovered and the irate father, 
with a group of his Mexican friends, was soon in hot 
pursuit. In spite of the determined pursuit by the 
father, this young Lochinvar succeeded in eluding him 
and in a few hours arrived safely at Fountain City with 
his bride. But his troubles had just begun. The de- 
termined parent, with a large band of armed Mexicans, 
soon arrived and demanded the surrender of his stolen 
daughter. Juan, in true knightly style, refused to give 
up his treasure and barricading his door, prepared to 
give battle. His enemies immediately opened fire upon 
his adobe hut, but they might as well have aimed their 
guns in the air or against the side of "Old Sugar Loaf" 
hill nearby. The party soon learned that it required 
much heavier artillery than they possessed to have any 
effect on the adobe walls which surrounded the object 
of their attack. 

But the valiant Chiquito, using the one small win- 
dow as a loophole, struck terror in the ranks of his 
enemy. All day long the battle raged, but the wary 
Juan did not give his enemies any opportunity to do 
effective work with their bullets and finally, being 
wearied with the uselessness of continuing the battle, 
they withdrew, deeply chagrined at their failure. 

THE ESPINOSA BROTHERS. 

In the spring of 1863 there occurred a series of cold 
blooded murders, so shrouded in mystery that the entire 

One Hundred Fifty 



OF THE PUEBLO REGION 

populace of the upper Arkansas was terror stricken. In 
the brief space of a few weeks more than twenty of 
these mysterious murders were committed, and in no 
case could any clue as to the whereabouts of the mur- 
derers or reasons for their actions be discovered. 

The first murder that occurred was of a soldier at 
Conejos, the next on the Hardscrabble, just above 
Pueblo, when an old man was murdered and robbed. 
They next appeared in Park County, where they mur- 
dered two persons, Brinkley and Shoup. In quick suc- 
cession the bodies of murdered men were found in vari- 
ous parts of the region extending from Canon City to 
the Little Fountain near Colorado City. Upon the find- 
ing of the dead bodies of two prominent citizens of 
California Gulch, a call was made for volunteers, and 
a determined campaign was inaugurated for the pur- 
pose of running down the murderers. After forced 
marches, night and day, in which the volunteers 
scoured every nook and corner of the entire region in 
the vicinity of California Gulch, they came suddenly 
upon two horses tied in a secluded spot. Being sure 
that they had followed a continuous trail from the place 
where the murdered men had been found they immedi- 
ately surrounded the spot and orders were given to 
shoot the murderers on sight. Soon a man appeared, 
moving cautiously towards the horses. Just as he 
stooped to remove the hobbles from one of the horses 
the posse opened fire upon him. Although wounded at 
the first fire, the murderer dropped upon his knee and 
prepared to give battle, but before he could fire he was 
struck squarely between the eyes and instantly killed. 
The other murderer appeared, but, before a shot could 

One Hundred Fifty-one 



PATHBREAKERS AND PIONEERS 

be fired, threw himself over a precipitous bank into a 
ravine and was lost to sight. 

In their camp were found articles belonging to 
twelve of the men whom they had murdered, and also a 
diary which showed that the total number of murders 
up to that time was twenty-three. This diary also in- 
dicated that the two men, Espinosa by name, were 
fanatics bent on revenge for some fancied wrong. 

The Espinosa that escaped made his way into the 
San Luis valley, where he engaged a relative to assist 
him in the continuance of his murderous career. Their 
lives were brought to a sudden end, however by Tom 
Tobin and a squad of soldiers, who tracked them into a 
canon and killed them both. 

STOCK THIEVES OF SOUTHERN COLORADO. 

During the sixties the southern part of the state 
was infested by a gang of stock thieves who for a long 
while defied capture. Very few of the stolen animals 
were ever recovered, such an efficient organization be- 
ing maintained, extending from California Gulch 
through Canon City, Pueblo and Trinidad and on to 
Taos, that the thieves and their booty were safe from 
detection. 

One of these had its headquarters on the Dry 
Cimmaron and operated in Southern Colorado and New 
Mexico under the leadership of William Coe. In the 
spring of 1868 a flock of 3,000 sheep was found in their 
possession — stolen from New Mexico. The gang was 
arrested by a sheriff from Trinidad and sent to Fort 
Lyon for safe keeping. Within two weeks they had all 
escaped, but five of them with their leader were sub- 

One Hundred Fifty-two 



OF THE PUEBLO REGION 

sequently recaptured and turned over to the authorities 
at Pueblo. Shortly after being incarcerated in the 
Pueblo jail a squad of "soldiers" forcibly took the lead- 
er of the gang from the jail and hanged him. This 
drastic action eflfectually broke up the gang. 

THE KNIGHTS OF THE GOLDEN CIRCLE. 

At the beginning of the war for the Union there 
was grave doubt upon which side the influence of Colo- 
rado would be thrown. In the Arkansas valley region 
fully one-half of the population sympathized with the 
South. Arms, ammunition and other supplies were 
gathered from various sections of this region and 
secretly passed on to the South for use in the Secession- 
ist army. The Knights of the Golden Circle maintained 
an organization near Pueblo, where considerable activ- 
ity was shown during the early part of the war. 

On July 4, 1862, an armed clash between the two 
factions in Pueblo was barely averted. The circum- 
stances were as follows : A grand barbeque was being 
held, the settlers from the entire Pueblo region being 
in attendance. An arbor of boughs, nearly two hun- 
dred feet long, had been built on the bluff facing Santa 
Fe avenue. Under this arbor the tables, groaning 
with luxuries, had been spread for the feast. All went 
well until it was suggested that, as this was the Na- 
tion's birthday, the Stars and Stripes should be dis- 
played. The Southern sympathizers objected to this 
and declared that if any flag was to be displayed it 
should be the Stars and Bars. The noted Jack Allen 
had been busy throughout the morning dispensing his 
famous "Taos lightning," until a great number of both 

One Hundred Fifty-three 



PATHBREAKERS AND PIONEERS 

factions were ready for trouble — in fact were anxious 
for it. Every man, who had a gun or could procure 
one stood ready to participate in the impending con- 
flict. This strained situation lasted for several hours, 
without any shots being fired, however. Finally saner 
council prevailed and the conflict was averted — but not 
until the Stars and Stripes had been raised. 

"ZAN" HICKLIN AND MACE'S HOLE. 

Lying some thirty miles southwest of Pueblo is 
the beautiful valley in which the town of Beulah is 
situated. The early trappers of this region designated 
it by the somewhat ferocious title of Mace's Hole, so- 
called because of its having once been the rendezvous of 
a desperado by the name of Mace. 

During the year 1860-61 Mace's Hole became fa- 
mous as the headquarters of Col. John Heffiner, who 
was attempting to raise a Confederate regiment. His 
purpose was first to capture Fort Garland and then 
join the Conferedate forces in New Mexico. At one 
time there were some six hundred Confederates secret- 
ed in this locality, some of whom were fairly well 
equipped with uniforms and arms. 

"Zan" Hicklin, who, according to legend, was liv- 
ing on the Greenhorn when the coyotes and prairie dogs 
came to Colorado, succeeded, during the time Heffiner 
was carrying on his operations in Mace's Hole, in suc- 
cessfully "carrying water on both shoulders," by guid- 
ing Federal troops by day and driving beef cattle to 
the rebels in Mace's Hole by night. Hicklin continued 
to act in this dual capacity until the rebel regiment at 
Mace's Hole was dispersed by Federal troops. Upon 

One Hundred Fifty-four 



OF THE PUEBLO REGION 

one occasion he was arrested on the charge of being 
disloyal, but so clever was his defense that he was re- 
leased upon his taking the oath to support the consti- 
tution. 

Hicklin was famous for his practical jokes. One 
evening, as he and his man were returning from the 
prairie, where they had been hunting, they noticed that 
two men had arrived at the cabin to stay over night. 
One was a man whom Hicklin did not like, so he 
planned a huge joke upon him. Before permitting 
themselves to be seen, Hicklin contrived to procure a 
white sheet from the cabin and with this wrapped the 
carcass of an antelope, which they had shot. With 
feigned secrecy they stole into the cabin with their mys- 
terious burden, all the time being viewed by the two 
guests. That evening as supper was being prepared 
Hicklin was heard to remark in a loud voice, "Why 
did you shoot this tough old Arapahoe? Don't you 
know that they take more lard than they are worth? 
Why didn't you shoot one of those nice young Utes?" 
His guests were speechless with amazement when they 
beheld their host bring in from the kitchen and place 
before them a hind quarter of this, "tough old Arapa- 
hoe." In a way which their host could not understand, 
their appetites fled, neither being able to eat a bite, but 
sat silently by while Zan and his man gorged them- 
selves with nice juicy antelope. The travelers re- 
mained until morning, but departed before breakfast, 
declaring that they wished "to get an early start and 
couldn't stay to eat." 

Upon another occasion two well-dressed young 
men were at the Hicklin ranch, expecting to stay over 

One Hundred Fifty-five 



PATHBREAKERS AND PIONEERS 

night. After they had retired for the night, Hicklin 
remarked in a voice easily audible to his guests, "I 
don't believe we had better kill them. These well- 
dressed fellows never have any money anyway." Hick- 
lin chuckled with delight when a few minutes later the 
two strangers were seen to steal quietly out of the 
house, mount their horses and ride swiftly away. 



My quill is worn blunt and the oil in my lamp is 
running low; these are unmistakable omens that it is 
time to cease writing, but I am loath to close this vol- 
ume without a special tribute to those bold and fearless 
pioneers, the makers of Pueblo. I might have dedicated 
this book to them, but that in itself would be but empty 
praise. 

The present generation has little conception of the 
hardships, the privations and the sacrifices of these 
pioneers who first entered this barren region for the 
purpose of establishing their homes. When I think 
upon these things — when the scenes of olden times flit 
by me one by one, I am constrained to ask, "Could men, 
mere men, achieve these things in the face of such dif- 
ficulties and hardships?" Then I am reminded that, 
"there were giants in those days," and had it not been 
for those "giants" in brains and brawn, in heroism and 
courage, Pueblo could not have been. 

It is, therefore, in a spirit of reverence, almost akin 
to worship, that, as a representative of a younger gen- 
eration, I record this tribute to those brave men and 
women who "planted the trees in this valley of delight." 

One Hundred Fifty-six 



OF THE PUEBLO REGION 

Especially do the names of our noble pioneer women 
deserve a place in the Western hall of fame, because 
the hardships and dangers of pioneer life fell most 
heavily upon them. Without their patient and true- 
hearted co-operation, the very frame work of our 
Western civilization would have fallen to the ground. 

All honor to the pioneers, who wrought out the be- 
ginnings of this great commonwealth, in sacrifice and 
blood; who made possible our presence in this great 
green valley, teeming with its abundant harvests, its 
happy homes and its loyal men and women. 



One Hundred Fifty-seven 



INDEX 

Arkansas Valley, part of U. S 10 

Bent Bros, trading posts 17 

Board of Trade of So. Colo 71 

Bonds, Railroad 115 

Bridge, free over Arkansas 75, 76 

Carson, Kit 29, 33, 84, 86 

Central Colo. Improvement Co 73 

Central Pueblo 119 

Cherry Creek, Gold discovery 39, 40 

Chieftain, Colo., established 66 

Chieftain, Colo. Extracts from 67, 68 

Church building, first 69, 70 

Cities, growth of in U. S 117 

Colo. Volunteers, Company G 93 

Colo. Territory organized 45 

C. F. & I. Co., history of 123-126 

"County Addition" 61, 62 

Court House, first and second 59, 77 

County Commissioners, records of. 60 

East Pueblo, laid out 108 

Education in America 130, 131 

El Puebla, Fort 20 

Espinoza Bros 150 

Flour Mill, first 63, 64 

Fountain City 41, 47, 48, 51, 60 

Fowler, Jacob 33, 35, 36 

French Trading post near Pueblo 9 

Fur trade in the West 25, 37, 38 

German Colony in Wet Mtn. Valley 72, 73 

Guerilla Bands 54 

Hicklin, Zan 145 

Horse Thieves in Pueblo Region 148 

Huerfano river, first trading post on 8 

Indian outbreaks 45, 70, 71, 90 

Jefferson, territory of. 149 

Land Office established 75 

Long, Stephen A 17 

Mail service to Pueblo 62, 74 

Mail service to Pacific coast 78 

Manufacturing concerns in Pueblo 126 

Massacre at Pueblo fort 82-84 

McClung, J. S., career of as School Superintendent 141 

One Hundred Fifty-eight 



INDEX 

Miners' Courts 144 

People's Courts 144 

Pike's expedition to Pueblo 10-16 

Pike's Peak Express 99 

Pioneers, attitude toward Indians 81 

Pioneers, Character of 49-50 

Pioneers, instinct for self-government 46-47 

Pioneers, tribute to 156 

Pony Express 99-100 

Proffitt, David, adventures of with Indians 86-89 

Public Library Association 76 

Pueblo, attempts to remove capital to 79 

Pueblo, becomes incorporated 74 

Pueblo, description of by Judge Stone 56 

Pueblo, description of in 1866 61 

Pueblo, growth of 56-57 

Pueblo, increase of population 78-79 

Pueblo, industrial development 118 

Pueblo, location commented on by Wm. Kelly. 120-121 

Pueblo, organization of 52-53 

Pueblo, incorporates as city 77 

Pueblo, rapid growth of, in 1872-73 108 

Pueblo, statistics concerning, in 1867 68-69 

Pueblo, study of growth in population 117-118 

Pueblo, strategic location of. 118, 120, 127 

Pueblos, united 119 

Pueblo county, census.. 57, 74 

Pueblo county organized 58 

Pueblo fort, description of 19-21 

Railroad, attempt to secure for Pueblo 103-104 

Railroads, attempts to secure bond issues 110-111 

Railroads, conflict between Rio Grande and Santa Fe 111-114 

Railroads, effect of, upon business and customs 108 

Railroads, first to enter Colo, region 102 

Railroads, transcontinental 101 

Rio Grande railroad, organization of 102 

Rio Grande excursion from Denver 107 

Rio Grande, securing of for Pueblo 104 

Rio Grande, voting of bonds for 106-107 

Sand Creek, Battle of 94-96 

Santa Fe trail 16, 54 

Santa Fe trail cut-off, at Bent's Fort 19 

One Hundred Fifty-nine 



INDEX 

Santa Fe railroad enters Pueblo Ill 

Smelting industry 122 

"San Juan," the proposed state of 79 

South Pueblo, founding of 108 

South Pueblo, development of 118 

Spaniards in Arkansas valley 7 

Spanish ruins in vicinity of Pueblo 8 

Spanish military expeditions into vicinity of Pueblo 8-9 

State Fair Association 76 

Stage lines, established by government 97 

Stage, overland 100-101 

Stock thieves in Southern Colo 152 

Schools, beginning of in Pueblo 131 

Schools, first building erected 132 

Schools, early tax levies for 134 

Schools, erection of adobe school 135-137 

Schools, erection of Centennial school 140 

Schools, erection of Central school 138 

Schools, first graduating class, Dist. 1 142 

Schools, first graduating class, Dist. 20„ 139 

Schools, organization of Dist. 20 138 

Schools, superintendents of Dist. 20 139 

Schools, superintendents of Dist. 1 141 

Taxes, first levy 60 

Telegraph line enters Pueblo 65 

Toll bridge across Arkansas 75 

Trails of Southern Colorado 18-19 

Trappers of the West 23-28 

Water works, establishing of. 77-78 

Wooten, "Uncle Dick" 57-58 



One Hundred Sixty 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



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